by Calvin Staropoli (@cal_staro)
Inspired by the unique guitar work and confessional songwriting of artists like Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake, Chicago singer-songwriter Hannah Frances is another in a lineage of great songwriters who have tackled the subject of grief and loss. Going into her third studio album, Frances sought to create something that could be healing both to herself and to the listener. The result was Keeper of the Shepherd, a record overflowing with generosity and ambition, with Frances delving into the darkest parts of her psyche and her past to try and learn to reclaim herself again.
Frances’ lyrics on Shepherd often focus on the feeling of being trapped inside oneself, of our own bodies and minds not being us but something we are stuck in. Through these seven tracks, we hear the sound of her attempting to break free. Opener “Bronwyn” waltzes along with an off-kilter rhythmic motion that feels like it’s running in place, representing that trapped feeling. Frances’ voice smears itself across the song like paint, moving with graceful urgency and creating a vivid portrait of her loss. The opening line, “The brilliance of the day waits for you to wake again,” perfectly encapsulates the themes of the album. Frances knows there is beauty and joy in the world, but the pain she feels due to the loss of a loved one makes it seemingly impossible to find it again.
On the title track, rollicking Americana is filtered through a dark and nocturnal atmosphere. Here, Frances attempts to reclaim her sense of self. Losing this person feels like she's losing a part of herself too, maybe even more than just a part, “I died too, I lost you within me”. “Husk” uses vocal layers and mournful strings to delve even deeper into death’s effect on her. Death is holding her life together, giving it purpose, but it also feels like it's destroying her from the inside, ”Death is a husk, holding the shape of my life”. The penultimate “Vacant Intimacies” is the most explosive track. Frances describes the feeling of being haunted, not by a person, but by their absence; the empty space where they used to be. As Frances tries to navigate this feeling and find her way to the other side, the percussive horns and simmering electric guitar engulf the song. They sound as if they are trying to escape the music itself, seeking the same catharsis that Frances is seeking.
On closing track “Haunted Landscape, Echoing Cave,” she compares her grieving process to natural processes; corpses decomposing, mountains eroding. These processes are so slow that it’s nearly impossible to tell that anything is changing, but even though she can’t feel or see the change, she can take comfort in the fact that one day, before you know it, things will look different. The track ends on a gorgeous saxophone solo and a final crescendo that acts as an emotional release from the pain expressed throughout the record. It is a moment where all the suffering is suddenly taken over by a sense of wonder and awe. Whether it’s an escape or acceptance, it sounds like Hannah Frances found what she was searching for.
Intimate and yet explosive, Keeper of the Shepherd is a soaring exorcism of grief, exploring how death and trauma can be both a destructive and a guiding force in one's life. Hannah Frances lays her heart out bare as she uses immersive, nocturnal folk to expel the demons and yearn for something beyond the pain.