MySpace a place for friends

Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou

This most unassuming young husband and wife song-writing partnership released their self-titled album in February 2010 on independent London label Loose Music. A stunning collection of twelve original songs produced by, and featuring Danny George Wilson (Grand Drive/Danny and The Champions Of The World) and Romeo Stodart (Magic Numbers). Singing in perfect harmony TM&HL write and perform with a rare fluency, and manage to capture a quiet yet powerful beauty in their music.

The pair met in London having arrived in the capital by contrasting routes. Hannah-Lou is the classic English rose, born and raised in the Garden Of England amongst the apple orchards and rolling fields. Trevor led a somewhat more nomadic existence, spending many of his early years on military bases in Germany.

‘It’s like living in a 50s throwback to colonial life. Every classroom had a picture of the Queen hanging on the wall. You still had to stand for the national anthem at the cinema. England was mythical, pride instilled in you everyday. The reality of coming ‘home’ was a sudden wake up call.’

The song England sums up much of the album’s predominant theme. This mournful recount of Trevor Moss’s directed frustration and unflinching patriotism, desperately asks the question ‘Somebody say this was England?’ He adds, ‘It’s the things you love the deepest that are able to disappoint you the most. This isn’t a nostalgic record. It’s not about yesterday. It’s about how we’d like tomorrow to be.’

Trevor Moss’s delivery is at once direct and plaintive, whilst Hannah-Lou’s voice conjures the great female vocalists Sandy Denny and Shirley Collins. Taking the lead on Sally Took The Ivory, Half Way Home and Ruth Drink My Whisky her voice soars with heartrending tone, combining with her subtle and poetic lyrical style to mesmerising effect. Together their voices flawlessly entwine, merging into one in their sophisticated arrangements, casually swapping the lead and utilising their unusually similar register.

The album ‘Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou’ sees the pair mature as artists. As the song writing team behind indie-bluegrass pioneers Indigo Moss, they released a single album (Indigo Moss), recorded at Damon Albarn’s 13 studio on uber-producer Youth (Killing Joke/Paul McCartney) and Simon Tong’s (The Verve/The Good The Bad And The Queen) Butterfly Recordings label to widespread critical acclaim in 2007. Since then they married and retreated out of the city to the tranquillity of Hannah-Lou’s birthplace, the Garden Of England, where they have developed their unique style. They have also become fully fledged members of Danny & The Champions Of The World, and feature on the highly acclaimed new album ‘Streets Of Our Time.’

To launch their new record TM&HL eschewed the conventional live music circuit in favour of an enchanting tour of village halls, taking with them regulars from their London Folk Club ‘The Lantern Society’ and inviting local talent to pit their wits against the Big Smoke’s Best. The ‘Can’t Wait For The Spring Tour’ taking in villages such as Dilton Marsh, Quorn and Egerton attracted national attention from The Guardian, who featured their travelling circus. A short film by celebrated filmmaker Simon Warwick Green who joined them on the tour is currently in production. Further legs of the tour are also currently in the pipeline.

‘We’re not traditionalists in any sense of the word. We started the Lantern Society to continue London’s cutting edge folk club heritage. Like ‘Les Cousins’ was in the 60s, a haven for the new and exciting strand of folk music, played all night by people shunned by the traditional folk crowd. This is what we do.’

This impressive debut album is an authentic document, of its own place and time, and reveals one of the most original and eloquent song writing partnerships to emerge in recent years. Their commitment and love for one another imbues their music with a depth and passion rarely found and makes for a refreshing listen. ‘Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou’ sits alongside and continues the rich heritage of classic English albums.