Title - Ice Cream In November
Artist - Lynne Hanson
For those not in the know, Evolution isn’t always easy. And change, especially big change, can be scary. Yet this is exactly
what Ottawa-based singer-songwriter Lynne Hanson has embraced with her latest effort, Ice Cream in November.
Co-produced by Hanson and multi-instrumentalist Blair Michael Hogan,
and mixed and mastered by Grammy-nominated sound engineer Phil Shaw Bova, the album was recorded by Hanson and Hogan in their home studios over a two-month period in late summer 2021.
While not abandoning her Americana roots, Ice Cream in November - set for release on April 22nd, 2022 on Hanson’s label Panda Cave Records - continues the sonic evolution that permeated her 2020 release, Just Words. “I don’t want to keep making the same record over
and over again,” Hanson says. “Getting outside of my artistic comfort zone and trying new things is what keeps things fresh for me at this point in my career.”
Thus the result is a more contemporary sound that incorporates synthesizers, ethereal guitar pads, and even the odd electronic drum track.
1. Shadowland
2. Hip Like Cohen
3. Ice Cream In November
4. Hundred Mile Wind
5. Orion’s Belt
6. Birds Without A Feather
7. Dominoes
8. In On A Wing
9. One Of Those Days
10. Puzzle Pieces
11. Le Bon Moment
12. This Heart Of Mine
This rather magnificent, and wholly heartfelt new recording opens on the rambunctious country-rockabilly, Hank Marvin-esque guitar work of Shadowland and the tuneful, mid-tempo hipsway of Hip Like Cohen (“Sipping sidecars while posing / Lining up to be seen / Proud to be post-modern / Without really knowing what that means”), and then we get the atmospheric, dreamy hooks of title track Ice Cream In November, the countrified twang of her trademark red dirt ode Hundred Mile Wind, and the ornate gossamer of the piano/guitar balladry within Orion’s Belt (“Like why do songbirds like to sing / Why quicksand isn’t quick at all / And space and time is a relative
thing”).
Next up is the gentle, down south harmonica-driven foot-tapper Birds Without A Feather and then comes one of my own personal favorites, the languishing, Spaghetti-western-imbibed swagger of Dominoes, and then we get the joyously upbeat In On A Wing, before Hanson delivers the late ’90s alt-indie-pop vibe of One Of Those Days, the gentle, storytelling embrace of Puzzle Pieces, the album rounding out on the French-sung ditty Le Bon Moment, coming to a close on the troubadour-imbibed rhythms found within the heartache-consumed This Heart Of Mine.
Nine of the 12 songs on the album are co-writes with Hogan, who had only just started touring with Hanson in February 2020. The writing collaboration started when Hanson offered to add a
vocal melody and lyrics to an instrumental piece Hogan had posted on social media. This song would eventually become the title track to the new album.
“It was an entirely new process for
me to have to not only co-write remotely, but to develop lyrics and a vocal melody to a song
structure that already existed,” says Hanson. “And in some cases, I was working with chord
progressions that may not have been what I would have chosen. It was challenging and
liberating at the same time, and it really got me out of the writing funk I was in.”
Hanson is no stranger to recording. Since 2006, she’s released eight studio albums - including
Heartbreak Song for the Radio, which she co-produced as one half of The LYNNeS. But there’s
a big difference between being in the studio and actually being responsible for capturing
audio. “The idea of self-engineering my own album was terrifying,” Hanson says. “Prior to
2020, I had never even owned a
single piece of recording
equipment. So having a talent
like Phil ready to mix and master the album gave me the confidence that we could actually do this ourselves.”
Hanson felt that her recording
experience, paired with Hogan’s
versatility as a musician, meant
they could track the majority of
the album themselves. The
drums were another story,
however. “We knew we wanted
real drums on the album, and
that was definitely above my
pay grade to record properly, so
we were really excited when Phil Shaw Bova also agreed to lay down the drum tracks,” Hanson
says. “Phil is in very high demand these days and is pretty much exclusively a mastering
engineer, but he recorded and played drums on two previous albums and was open to the idea
of being more heavily involved in this project.”
They also enlisted the help of a few other
musician friends, including Peter Klaassen on upright bass, Steve Marriner on harmonica, and
Raphael Weinroth-Browne on cello.
Not having the pressure of being on the clock in a commercial studio where time is money,
Hanson had the freedom to experiment with arrangements, sounds, and instrumentation on
every track. But there was also a downside to having no time limit. “With a home studio, it’s
possible to endlessly tinker with a song. At one point, I had to really hunker down and set to
say that I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished with this album, both in terms of the songs themselves, as well as the quality of the production.”
Ultimately, Hanson has created an album of sounds and songs that tied together by well-crafted lyrics and her trademark whiskey-soaked alto, rather than a specific label that you can
slot her in. One thing’s for sure, there’s nothing vanilla about Ice Cream in November.
Lynne Hanson is a two-time Canadian Folk Music Award winner, a recipient of the Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award, winner of the Blues and Roots Radio International Song Contest, two-time Folk Music Ontario Blues Award winner, a two-time Indie Acoustic Project Alt-Country album of the year winner, and a two-time Kerrville New Folk finalist.
She is an international touring artist, having performed at festivals and venues across Canada, the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom. Hanson has appeared at leading international festivals including Take Root (Netherlands), Glasgow Americana (Scotland), Maverick Festival (UK), Kerrville Folk Festival (US), and Winnipeg Folk Festival (Canada). She’s toured as support for Grammy-nominated artists like Gretchen Peters, Steve Forbert, and Albert Lee.
2022 World Tour Dates:
United States
Mar 4 - UPPER JAY, NY - The Recovery Lounge
Mar 5 - SCHUYLER LAKE, NY - Cot & Crackers House
Mar 6 - BETHLEHEM, PA - Godfrey Daniels
Mar 9 - NEW YORK, NY - Big City Folk
Mar 11 - ALEXANDRIA, VA - Concerts At The Sevareid
Mar 12 - ASHEVILLE, NC - Isis Music Hall Lounge
Mar 13 - RALEIGH, NC - House Concert
United Kingdom:
Apr 1 - BEWDLEY - Town Hall
Apr 2 - KIRTON IN LINDSAY - Jubilee Hall
Apr 3 - SALTAIRE - The Live Room
Apr 5 - WEST CUMBRIA - Gospforth
Apr 6 - BIRMINGHAM - The Kitchen Garden Cafe
Apr 7 - NOTTINGHAM - The Running Horse
Apr 8 - SCARBOROUGH - Woodend Gallery
Apr 9 - YORK - Newbald Village Hall
Apr 10 - ECCLESHALL - The Royal Oak
Apr 12 - MANCHESTER - Gullivers
Apr 14 - LONDON - Green Note
Apr 16 - COLCHESTER - Little Rabbit Barn
Europe:
May 5 - WESTWOUD, NL - De Schalm
May 7 - BAARS, NL - Speelplaats Theater
May 8 - AALSMEER, NL - De Oude Veilling
May 11 - EDE, NL - Live Stage Marnix
May 12 - TERHEIJDEN, NL - Witte Kerkje / Open Road Sessions
May 13 - STUTTGART, DE - Laboratorium
May 14 - DUISBURG, DE - House Concert
May 15 - LIPPENHUIZEN, NL
May 16 - EINDHOVEN, NL - De Maandag van Van Meurs @ Muziekgebouw
May 18 - VERDEN, DE
May 19 - BERGEDORF, DE - Club am Donnerstag (Happy Billard)
May 20 - BORDESHOLM, DE - Savoy
May 21 - ELMSHORN, DE - Musik Nacht
May 22 - NORDERSTEDT, DE - Music Star
May 25 - REDDING / PHALSBOURG, FR - Lapin Blanc
May 26 - EPINAL, FR - La Souris Verte
May 27 - PARIS, FR - Centre Culturel Canadien
Canada:
June 12 - WENTWORTH-NORD, QC - Rickk’s Room
June 18 - EAGANVILLE, ON - Off The Grid Productions
June 19 - VANKLEEK HILL, ON - Gallery
June 24 - OTTAWA, ON - Harmony Concerts / First Unitarian Church
June 25 - TRENTON, ON - The Old Church
Aug 17 - PERTH-ANDOVER, NB - Oak Tree
Aug 18 - FREDERICTON, NB - Grimross Brewing
Aug 19 - MONCTON, NB - venue TBD
Aug 20 - LUNENBURG, NS - Outdoor concert series
Official Website
Official Purchase Link
Lynne Hanson @ Facebook
Lynne Hanson @ Instagram
Lynne Hanson @ YouTube