It’s the dawn of February’s brevity—morning light is low yet growing, the sky a bright eggshell mirroring the ground blanketed in snow. Everything is thawing in a warm spell, the green is burgeoning. Sitting at my desk, Sonny Rollins on the stereo. I meant to write this a week ago with the release of my song Husk, but I slipped into overwhelm with the little things, and navigating the juxtaposition of being perceived in the wintertime while feeling deftly introverted. My real life outside of the cacophonous internet is quiet and solitary these days.
If you missed it, Husk is out in the world. You can watch the video here which is a movement piece choreographed by Sarah Bolander. Filmed a year ago in a one-take swoop in the dark forest out on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. It would mean so much to me if you offered a moment of space to this very intimate and multifaceted work.
As my writing is inextricable from my kinship with the land, I weave ecological imagery and archetype to recount my personal mythology more expansively, more richly. Husk is a mediation on the cyclic nature of life—of death, of rebirth—understood through the animacy of husks, the ephemerality of trilliums, of leaves reaching toward the light as the forest canopy and understory overturns through time.
Husk is an understood patience, Husk is a grief offering. Husk is dedicated to my dad, who I suddenly and tragically lost when I was 18. My understanding of death has held the shape of my life since then, and writing is how I tend to the unbearable, and attempt to make sense of the senseless. This piece encapsulates a trust in the divine, a surrender, a spiritual knowing that death is intrinsic to everything that is and ever was, and if that is the universal truth that we are all a part of, then life truly is sacred.
Thank you to everyone involved in this piece, Kevin Copeland who engineered and produced it with me, Alex Ellsworth and Hunter Diamond who expanded it through strings and woodwinds, Logan Miley who mixed it to engulf in all its vast emotional dynamic, and Amar Lal who worked tediously and patiently with me on mastering. I am such a champion of all of these artists, I believe in all of them so much and collaborating is a blessing.
Calling in more and more collaborations in the future. The music I’ve been working on in the last six months is very ensemble-choir-oriented and I’m excited to expand my orbit in this way!
UPCOMING:
MARCH 8: Hannah Frances Ensemble Album Release + Birthday Party at Constellation Chicago
BUY TICKETS HERE
This is my 27th birthday party and album celebration! Big band, playing the full album plus maybe some other tunes up my sleeve. Come one, come all.
More release shows may sprout up after that—planning one in NYC, maybe some west coast rambling if that aligns—but for now, this is what I have the capacity and foresight for! Truthfully, I’ve felt some guilt for this, as I feel obliged to be on the road, or at least that’s the expectation in the music industry and what everyone around me seems to strive for. Haunted by the mentality of urgency-culture demanding “NOW! The time is NOW! You’re wasting time! You’ll fall behind!” But when I tune into myself, avidly touring and hustling isn’t what I am being called to, as I’m focused on my other pathways of work and study, and spending the spring finishing up creative projects, gardening, and reorienting to an ever-developing artistic identity. How do I want to move through the world? What shape of myself am I holding? What is my path as an artist, aligned with my values, with community, with ease, and sustainability? This is what’s on my mind, among other ruminations. Also, it is widely known, but touring is expensive, and touring solo has proven unsustainable for my nervous system, but touring with other people is even more expensive, so, what then? Let me know if you find the solution. I’m taking a breath. This is an open dialogue, if you want to chime in!
Back in our art school days when we were 18, my best friend and I used to say “on time for what?” in response to the scarcity mentality of this urgent world. ON TIME FOR WHAT? There is no rush, we are not out of time, we can move slow, we have permission to move at our own pace. We are not behind.
It’s easy to forget this and lose perspective on social media, a myopic wasteland urging us to produce more and commercialize our art better to meet the insatiable demands of attention-deficit consumers.
I’ll try to remember this, and when it’s hard some days I’ll try again tomorrow.
Maybe you needed to hear this, too?
IN OTHER NEWS,
HERE IS WHAT I’M READING:
Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Body-Centered Psychotherapy — The Hakomi Method by Ron Kurtz
The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram
The Healing Power of Breath by Richard Brown
A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit
Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet by Tsing, Swanson, Gan, Bubandt
Awareness Through Movement by Moshe Feldenkrais
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO:
I’m spinning mostly old records that I have at home, a literally daily-listen to Minnie Riperton’s Come to My Garden which is one of my favorite records ever made. Minnie is one of the best to ever do it. Not a lot of new music captivates me these days. But my friend Ian Hatcher-Williams has a project Lamplight that is releasing an album in March and it is a true beauty! And a Ruination Record Co. label-mate Alena Spanger is also releasing an album in March, which I’m very excited for. Ruination is an amazing label run by really good hearts, they put out beautiful work and I am honored to be a part of the team.
Otherwise, I make a monthly mix for Beloved Radio, mostly old stuff, a lot of jazz. You can go to my mix archive here to explore some curations!
Thank you for reading if you’ve made it this far.
Sending you well wishes wherever you are, weathering the winter, tending the hearth. I’ll see you in the spring.
Love,
HF
I can't believe I missed your Constellation show! I found out about it the day after it happened!
Glad to find this and your music; I'll be playing some on my WPKN radio show March 7, "A Miniature World" www.wpkn.org