HANNAH NOEL

Wednesday January 25, 2023

Bus Call @ Tin Roof in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

There are several renowned, live performance platforms in Nashville where someone can go to discover the best new talent that the rich music community has to offer.

With their mantra of inspiring and supporting the next generation of musical talent, and the clever marketing idea of keeping the “party bus” rolling, Bus Call has been one of the most sought after full band showcases to be a part of for music lovers and artists alike for the past five years.

Elise Harper, Payton Howie, Ella Langley, Lizzie Cates, American Blonde, Molly Lovette, and Royale Lynn are just a few of the names who have graced the Wednesday night Bus Call lineup over the past six months at the longtime Demonbreun Hill hot spot, Tin Roof.

This week’s lineup - once again - welcomed a six-pack of incredible emerging talent including Kacy Moon, Melissa Livingstone, and Hannah Noel.

Noel, a southeast Georgia native who calls Nashville home, is recognized by her most recently release single “Doin’ Just Fine,” but has spent the past year since its release carving out her unique niche, teasing new music, and playing high-profile gigs as part of the lineups for Whiskey Jam, The Porchlight Pickers, Lucky Money Entertainment, and tonight, a return trip to the Bus Call.

Continuing to tease her latest music, Noel slid right into her set with the toe-tapping, hip-shaking groove of “Owl Hollow,” pulling together a moody blend of honky-tonk rhythm, modern country edge, and a touch of spitfire, Texas infused flare to immediately get the crowd invested.

Group conversations across the crowd slowed to a murmur if they even continued talking at all, as they began to bop their heads in time with Hannah as she pushed her grit and growl into the sinfully murderous bend of the lyric, before sliding into a jam session outro that elevated the steel guitar to splash a classic country vibe into the fusion of sonic sound.

By softening that pace with “Broken Down at The Bar,” the shift in tempo allowed Hannah’s natural Southern drawl to drip through the verses while tugging on heartstrings lyrically, before she’d lift into her pure vocal power through the chorus, impressing the absolutely stunned crowd.

“I’m gonna take a little bit of a risk, if that’s alright?” asked Hannah as she revealed that she was going to do one song, just her and her acoustic. “I found that whatever you’re thinking about when you’re sitting in deer stands is usually what you end up writing about; and I wrote this next one about myself,” she told as she played “The Hunting Song.”

The transparent singer-songwriter vibe embedded into the folksy style unveiled a vulnerable layer that really put the spotlight on all of Noel’s signatures as she let her built-in drawl softly combine with all the right touches to convey the proper emotions of the lyrics while utilizing her absolute power to elevate the chorus, showcasing her uncanny ability to move her voice through its different octaves with a total control of it that usually takes years to master. 

With the full band now back behind her on stage to close out the set, she perfectly bookended it with “A Little Wiser,” a song that saw her strumming into a moody rhythm, which she bent into the build of the punchy rhythm as she belted out the “letting his charm get to her too quickly” lyric that perfectly hit on the flurry of real-life conflicting emotions as she sang through lines such as “I know I don’t wanna do this, but I don’t wanna stop” and “you’re saying all the right things, let me cut you off.”

In just four songs, Hannah Noel left it all on the stage while boldly introducing the many different layers that make up her original sound, all while whetting the whistle of the crowd – who quickly became her newest fans – expertly leaving them in high-anticipation of her next show and the new music that’s still to come.

FULL SETLIST

1) Owl Hollow

2) Broke Down at The Bar

3) The Hunting Song

4) A Little Wiser

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