“She sings as if she’s charting a gentle and righteous path to the truth.”
— Jim Chapdelaine (13-Time Emmy Winner)
“An intoxicating delight!”
— Laurell Reynolds (Host of the Folk Show on Jefferson Public Radio)
“Her storytelling is deep both exposing anxiety and deliberate carelessness in every day relationships with others or herself”
“If the sun had a soundtrack, Hannah would be in high rotation!”
— Sandy Shore (smoothjazz.com)
The making of
About the album...
I’ve realized that there is no better way to grow except through some sort of messy struggle. Coming out the other side of each experience, I gathered a better sense of why people need each other in this world. I’ve managed to get to where I am in life thanks to folks I’ve met and the people I’ve loved along the way. I adore the exploration of love, but love and relationships undoubtably present their own challenges. Every song on this album honors these challenges.
My hope is that “I’m Right Here” will take the listener on a somewhat comical, a little provocative, and mostly spiritual adventure through its songs. The album is designed to be listened to in sequential order with each song carefully crafted, note by note, in hopes of capturing the stories and emotions that inspired them. I did not force the album to fit in a specific genre, but rather let it express an authentic score. This authenticity is represented in the album’s cover art (made by yours truly): a North-eastern Scarlet Tanager perched on a West Coast Cypress — a bird beyond its territory, far from home, out of place, enjoying fresh perspective on life.
About
Hannah Cooper is an American performer singer-songwriter who grew up in rural Minnesota spending countless below-freezing winters inside listening to show tunes and film scores. Having a theatrical lineage dating back to her great grandfather, who was among the remaining Showboat owners/ operators in the late 1930’s, the stage came very naturally to her. She first picked up the guitar as a curious child and later began playing in her fathers “Blues Brothers Tribute" band as a teenager. Itching to write and perform songs of her own, she released her first batch of songs at 17 years old. She recorded, mixed and mastered them on a home digital recorder and burned five copies which sold at her first show. Performing as a solo artist most of her life, Hannah learned quickly how to capture an audience using her rich soulfully-filled Mezzo voice accompanied by a little eyebrow-raising guitar work you don’t see many female solo artists do.
After graduating with an Associates Degree from the local community college in her home town of Brainerd Minnesota, Hannah took an eight year hiatus from music, which she later explained, “I was learning how to love another human”. Filling her life with a move out west- to working on a crabbing vessel out of Newport, Oregon - followed by a six thousand mile bicycle tour to Walden Pond- which led to her building her own tiny house. Hannah has an abundance of stories to tell using a guitar to help highlight those scenes. In 2015 she began to further her guitar studies with renown 7-string Classical/ Jazz guitarist, Bill Leonhart. Jazz guitar features prominently in her song-writing, leading some listeners to classify her as a cross between Americana and Jazz. She began writing a batch of new songs which got her national recognition. She won Best Folk Song with “Hickory Tree” in the 2017 American Songwriting Awards and also received two Best Folk Nominations for “The Colors You Make” in the 2016 Hollywood Song Contest and 2017 American Songwriting Awards along with a dozen West Coast Songwriters contest wins in 2018 and a two-time Morro Bay Song Contest winner and Best Folk Nominee with the Hollywood Songwriting contest for "These Shoes" in 2019.
Hannah self-produced and recorded a collection of songs in an EP titled, “A Time For Truth” in 2017. She explains, “these songs represent the challenges of holding on to your truth in a world pressured by exploited social trends and expectations.” Having a deep choral background has lended almost a spiritual approach to her songwriting. Hannah believes multiple layers of stories exist even beyond the voice and guitar. The result is her latest release, "I'm Right Here". Teaming up with recording engineer/ mixer, Daniel Sherrill (of the band Hollis Peach), they managed to capture some extremely personal emotions heard in her voice with these recordings. Hannah also features on this album- nationally renown jazz pianist, Patti Moran McCoy, multi-genre LA studio percussionist, Theresa McCoy and her good friend Jenika Smith on upright bass. “I’m Right Here” is set for worldwide release on June 25th, 2019.