The Wheels Won’t Go
Rosietta, 2022
8/10
The Canadian singer-songwriter Hannah Shira Naiman returns with a 3rd album, where an extremely retro flavor is delivered thanks to her voice, hambone, fiddle, banjo and gourd banjo, as well as plenty of help from an all star cast of musicians.
“The Grouse” starts the listen with a nostalgic, bluegrass friendly demeanor that benefits from Brian Kobayakawa’s strategic bass and Olivia Esther’s well timed French horn, and the title track follows with Ken Whiteley’s warm electric guitar complementing Naiman’s mesmerizing hambone in the rhythmic landscape.
Residing in the middle, “Caroline Collins” showcases Nathan Smith and Naiman’s stirring fiddle in the intimate climate, while “Winter” recruits William Carn’s soulful trombone and Abigail Lapell’s soothing harmony vocals for the absorbing album highlight.
Further down the line, “Vinegar Pie” place Arnie Naiman on acoustic guitar alongside Naiman’s poetic vocals in the folk influenced display, and “Hartman’s Delight” exits the listen with Gary Craig’s agile drumming amid brass and guitar for the sublime instrumental finish.
Naiman faced many challenges when recording this body of work, including becoming a mother, relocating, a death in the family and the pandemic, but you certainly wouldn’t know it from the amount of beauty and melody present across tunes that seem like they could have been penned anytime in the last century.
Travels well with: Karen Jonas- Summer Songs; Mary Bragg- Violets As Camouflage