Hannah Frances - "Floodplain"
Photo by Rose Bernhard Chicago's Hannah Frances is making folk music that skirts the mainstream but is firmly in the alt-folk world. Her latest single, "Floodplain," is a song that is absolutely beautiful and stunning at times but a challenging listen at others. It's an odd mixture of Nick Drake and Fiona Apple's Fetch the Bolt Cutters. There is an underlying feeling that Frances is trying to make a hit adult contemporary song, but keeps getting pulled into the odder side of folk. There is unique instrumentation used at various points in the song, and Frances' vocals occasionally meander off away from the tempo of the music without warning. It's one of the more interesting and compelling takes on the genre this year. Hannah Frances says of her new single: “Floodplains are bodies of water composed of sediment deposited during flooding and erosion. As I was nearing the end of a grief cycle and releasing narratives that were keeping me stagnant in my growth, ...