BY LESLEY HASTINGS
It may have been one of the hottest evenings of the year, but there was a cool bunch of country music lovers at The Grace last night to catch Hannah Juanita’s first show in London. And what a triumphant debut it was!
Having toured extensively stateside for several years, she has finally crossed the pond and played a few full band dates with The Hardliners in Europe before making it to UK for a short run of acoustic shows. Accompanied by her phenomenal lead guitar player ( & amazing artist in his own right) Mose Wilson, the pair who recently announced their engagement turned the North London venue into a honky tonk (albeit one with numerous disco balls on the ceiling!) with a fabulous 75 minute set, a good mix of fast paced and often amusing songs and heartfelt ballads/duets, for me reminiscent of Tammy and George at times.
Mose had been asked at the last minute to play a few songs solo before Juanita joined him on stage, as he told us “I’ve been doing this since I was seven years old” so that wasn’t a problem! And it was no problem for the audience either, what a bonus in fact! Playing the first guitar he ever owned, given to him by his grandfather who passed last year, he said how proud he would have been knowing it was getting played in London. Another family connection came with his final song, “Working Man” which he wrote as a tribute to his father, a UPS delivery driver. His new album “That’s Love” is out on 17th July, btw.
Hannah then joined him, kicking the party off with “Honky Tonkin’ For Life“, probably her signature song as it was clear from what she told us during the set that travelling around and playing music live is her “raison d’etre”. Taken from her 2024 album “Tennessee Songbird“, it was lovely a bit later in the set to hear the story behind this album’s sweet title track ….one of her best friends moved to Oregon and became a keen ornithologist, telling her that birds sing in the morning from the pure joy and relief of surviving another night in the wild, which definitely resonated with Hannah.
We got several more songs from this well received album, including one of the highlights of the set for me, the ballad “Blue Moon“, and “Fortune” which she said they didn’t usually play without their fiddle player but still sounded great as far as we were all concerned!
She also made us all laugh at one point by saying that they were nearly late for the gig as they took a bus in the wrong direction…..and then decided to jump on bikes for the remainder of the journey (brave or mad??) complete with her cowboy hat which got her a few “Yee Haws” from passers by.
Anyway back to the music, and her debut album “Hardliner” was also represented with a favourite of mine (and seemingly several of the audience)”
Call Yourself A Man” plus the song which she said kicked everything off for her, “Our Love is Done” the debut single from that album which as she mentioned featured another tremendous artist Sierra Ferrell (I can highly recommend you catching her live too if you get the chance).
Throughout the set Mose switched between electric and acoustic guitars, with Hannah equally comfortable and confident with or without acoustic. Her vocal delivery was pure country perfection, and on the duets the two artists voiced complimented each other flawlessly: I would love to see them record an album of duets together, maybe a mix of classic covers and originals? They do actually have a duet out in the near future, I think a reworking of “Louisiana Twostep” which was on the setlist and on Mose’s self titled 2021 album, but don’t quote me on that and apologies to both artists if that’s not the case!
Mid-set Hannah thanked everyone for being there to support her and said it gave her encouragement to bring her full band over next time, I can’t wait for that to happen! Maybe some merch too, please?
A quick mention for the opener, UK’s Bryony Dunn playing solo instead of as part of a five-piece but who was more then capable of blasting out some great original songs on her own.
All in all, if you weren’t there last night (I’m aware it was a busy evening for country music fans in the capital) then I can highly recommend you put Hannah Juanita on your list of “must see artists” when she is next visiting, there’s a few more chances to catch her this time round too. And in the meantime is she’s an unknown to you then give her music a listen!