Karen Hanna – Carry Me Away

CD Review by Chris Spencer

Karen Hanna hails from Northern NSW, and this is her first album.

She’s made a pretty good fist of getting a good sound and her songs show plenty of promise.

She has used some talented musicians to give her a hand, particularly Jim Kelly the guitarist and Greg Lyon on bass being the best known to me.

Her bio says her “sound is a fusion of jazz, folk, retro R&B and soft rock”.

I think her sound is more lounge jazz, laid back, cruisy, undemanding in many instances.

I don’t here any folk, there’s a bit of funk, as displayed on “With You”.

I preferred the faster tempo songs rather than the slower ones, but the change in pace adds interest to the overall listening experience.

The lead track features the exquisite sax playing of Martha Baatz.

Her playing is also featured on the aforementioned “With You”. I don’t think this track is anyway the strongest track on the album, but perhaps it is a better sample of what the overall sound of the cd is.

“Gillian’s Blues” is the one of the two strongest songs on the album, featuring the guitar playing of Jim Kelly, some slinky organ, but lyrically we didn’t get to find out what the focus of the song was! “I Got Your Message” is another stronger song, being piano driven and has a bit more urgency in the vocal delivery.

The next three songs, “Singing Sadly”, “Heatwave” and “Crazy Kind of Thing” are slow numbers: “Heatwave” has a dreamy arrangement, again very jazz influenced, while “Crazy Kind of Thing” has an engaging melody and a tickling piano solo!

Other songs you might like include “If You Change Your Mind”, another slowie; “Trouble” speeds things up, while “Wrap it Up” ends the album up on a slow note.

Hanna’s voice is smooth and she is never troubled hitting the right notes.

However, while there are a couple of highlights, readers who like to have a bit of depth in the lyrics, might find this album unsatisfying.

I will be interested to see what Karen tackles next time.