Hannah Frances (b. 1997) is a vocalist, guitarist, composer, and poet that NPR’s Ann Powers calls “a stunning vocalist and songwriter, making monumental and mythic freak folk,” and was awarded Pitchfork’s Best New Music for her triumphant new album Keeper of the Shepherd. Through cutting lyricism and astute fingerpicked polyrhythms, Frances’ perennial sound melds avant-folk, progressive rock, and jazz. There is no singular way Frances grips us with her guitar or her storytelling. Drawing comparisons to Joni Mitchell and Jeff Buckley, her voice is colossal in its strength: piercing, warm, and always poised to embrace, even in its quietest expression. Whether performing as a solo act or with her full seven-piece ensemble, her mythology spellbinds with an insistent gravity.
