"I dig your music." ---The Decemberists (Chris Funk)
"The music sounds lovely. I will keep an eye out for you!"
---Catherine Feeny (Hotel Cafe Tour)
"I really like your stuff! When will you be coming to NY? I would love to see you."
---Sharon Van Etten
"Hannah muses about daydreams and longings while Samuel fills the sonic atmosphere with enchanting melodies."
---KCRW (Today's Top Tune)
"The Woodlands' whisper pop will be a perfect compliment...just as the day's final hour of sunlight comes to settle on the horizon."
---Willamette Week
"The Woodlands album is absolutely an ethereal trip through some of the best indie folk pop you will find (or I have ever found)."
---Slowcoustic
"As soon as we listened we dug out our English dictionaries and started flipping desperately through them, looking for the right words to describe it. They had to be beautiful words, big words, words that hadn't been used before!"
---Letters Have No Arms!
"This is a very good start of a promising band that should keep taking us into their haunting reflections of love and life."
---AW Music
"Honey and haze...A beautiful collection of simply-arranged, but wondrous and poetic sounds."
---Womenfolk
"Captures all of the beauty in their lives in each slow moving pass of the lens...The duo from Portland manages to craft engaging songs that only get better with each listen. Not a bad song in the bunch."
---Hero Hill
"The truth is the music you two are creating has this sheer fragile beauty to it that I've only heard from a few others." ---Greg
"Hannah and Samuel of The Woodlands invite you into an idyllic world
of warmth and inherent goodness. The deceptively simple sound, the lyrics,
and the texture of Hannnah's voice combine to show the truth in the dictum
Less Is More. Their music is so attracting you will want to place another
log on the fire and be as one in their world." ---Tom Wood
"The way Hannah's voice and the instruments compliment eachother...it's a symphony of human frailty. I love it." ---Nathan Jacquart
The Woodlands, a wife and husband indie folk-pop duo, craft songs of lyrical poetry, lush melody and intelligent simplicity. They conjure faraway lands and the longing of lovers with timeless imagery that unearths both the shadow of tragedy and the glisten of wonder. Hannah's hushed voice of swift beauty conveys both mirth and melancholy, tempered and surrounded by Samuel's melodic instrumentation. They till the soil of their souls to reap songs and sounds wrapped in a hauntingly sweet hush of wonder.
The grey of dripping dusk sounds forth an invitation to innocence. It extends its grey hand with a slight tremble and a quiet recognition of the disparity between its own chill and the warmth of the impending guest. Innocence reciprocates like a slow glance around the doorway that leads to a dim room, holding promises not only of marvelous wonder, but also of looming danger. And the allure of wonder prevails. The music is like the light of innocence that does not seek isolation or hibernation. It dances with gloom, not upon it. It does not intrude, it intervenes. And this light allures because it too has been haunted, yet shines more fiercely because of the haunting.
After getting married several years ago and backpacking through Europe, they returned to the US and began writing songs together. Awhile later, the pair sold their belongings and voyaged to Central America for yet another adventure as they learned the language, worked as orphanage volunteers and continued crafting their songs. Upon a deeper realization that they had been smitten by the merriment of making music, they returned to the US with a gleam and a goal of recording an album and pursuing music further.
They found themselves in a corner of their Portland apartment bedroom amidst an aged and worn wooden desk, elusive quiet night hours, and a homemade studio fort of blankets and pillows. There The Woodlands traveled the byways of one another's souls--seeking, listening and searching for words and sounds with which to share what they found. They independently recorded and produced their 2009 self-released debut album, true to their intent of capturing intimate songs of simple complexity that sound professionally homemade. The album has been received with both national and international praise, and with its release The Woodlands are set to embark as husband, wife and songlings on the voyage forthcoming.
FEATURES
Filter Magazine (Undiscovered Band of the Month interview)
Filter Magazine (Selected for quarterly compilation)
Paste Magazine (Dale's Pale Ale summer download)
IndieFeed (iTunes 1 rated podcast -- Daily Music Broadcast)
Virgin America Airlines (CMJ New Music Discovered feature)
American Airlines (Sky Radio interview and song in-flight feature)
KCRW (Today's Top Tune)
BBC Radio (Tom Robinson's Introducing UK)
CMJ Radio 200 Charts (Album charting 128)
Tinderbox Music (2009 National Radio Campaign Contest winner)
Nuummioq (Songs selected for feature film GREENLAND)
We Are Listening (Singer/Songwriter Awards Finalist)
PDX Pop Now! (2008 Compilation)
Tender Loving Empire (2009 Compilation)
Sonic Reducer (Compilation GERMANY)
Goûte Mes Disques (Compilation FRANCE / BELGIUM)
Nature Bliss (Upcoming compilation distributed by HMV JAPAN)
Radio (Played on over 200 US and international FM radio stations)
Press (Featured in over 40 blogs, articles and interviews)
Good Morning and thank you for starting my week with your friendship and an opportunity to hear your wonderful voices and music. I hope you enjoy my page and make new friends and are inspired by our supportive community. Peace and have a Healthy Happy Holiday Season. xox Kat
You've got a great sound, very chill and relaxing. Thanks for the add, hope you get a second to lend me an ear on a few tracks and let me know whatcha think, cheers from NY!
I am just seeing your lovely comment back from springy April. I love your music. LA is horrible. I wish I was in Oregon. :D Please come play here though!
I saw this quote shortly after posting my latest blog;
"It doesn't matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going." ~ Brian Tracy
I guess it's just another way of saying look ahead and don't look back, but I thought how true it is that it doesn't matter what we have been through, our self-perceived flaws or our so-called failures. We can't do anything about the past but learn from it and move on, hopefully using it as a tool to better discover our greater purpose.
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