When I heard Hannah Winkler was opening for Theo Katzman & Love Massive at the Ark, I made sure (with a little begging and cajoling) that I would be there. Hannah is someone I've been running into at various shows around Ann Arbor for a while. The last time I saw her on stage, though, was as a supporting musician for Theo Katzman when they opened this year's Ann Arbor Folk Festival. She was bang-up then, but I wanted to see what she was up to on her own—and of course another chance to see Theo Katzman & Love Massive made the package perfect.
The line to get in the building at ten minutes to 8 meandered down the sidewalk. People in line were questioning whether we would get in, quoting a local myth that whoever opens the Folk Fest will sell out the Ark for their next performance. We all squeezed in, but the stage remained empty until more or less everyone found a satisfactory place to sit—I was tucked up in a corner with a good view of center stage and a couple minutes later, of Hannah and her guitar.
She's got a voice that shifted from sweet and nostalgic with an occasional wavering vibrato, to cutting and focused. Her voice sounded most comfortable when paired with her guitar, but the guitar sound was thinned out by the drummer and bassist backing her up. Things heated up when she switched from guitar to the heavier sound of the keyboard for a humorous tune based on the idea, 'I wish I were the kind of person who has their shit together'. (I wish I were that kind of person too...) The performance was rounded out when she was joined by Theo Katzman, providing accompaniment with some rather abrupt bottleneck guitar.
When she introduced the band, Hannah told the crowd this was the second time they'd played a show as a group. With Rob on drums and Jordan on bass, Hannah's group is still coming together. They've got a couple rough edges, but they're still playing some tunes that I sure would like to hear again.
Why aren't you an English major? Seriously, you write so damn well!
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