It sounds good to say their names
together, for one, and for another,
they’re both extraordinarily talented
singer-songwriters and equally mean
guitarists, and look at them there,
right next to each other in the alphabet,
as if it was just meant to be.
The first song on Margaret Glaspy’s
Echo the Diamond is a rocker called
“Act Natural.” Its opening rocks, the
chorus rocks and is hooky as all get-out,
and the verse comes way down to a
more intimate, spacious place where
the vocal sits right there in your ear.
That first song encapsulates the range
of this album and of Glaspy’s skill.
She can rock really hard, almost a
kind of punk intensity, and she can
bring it way down, quiet, folky and sad.
On this record, the rockers fall mostly
on side one, and side two switches
gears into some cool, quiet territory.
Her lyrics are smart and her voice is
lovely but strange–distinctive, not
pretty in a conventional sense, but
strong, powerful. And her guitar playing
is gnarly and raw, sometimes strummy
and light, but her parts are often
inventive and always skillful. This album
is strong all the way through. I have
no memory of how I stumbled into
her music. I think I was just randomly
checking things out on my streaming
service, heard her, and thought, yeah,
she’s good, and then I followed a kind
of deal I have with myself to counter
the evils of music streaming: if I find
myself listening to a new artist again
and again on the streamers, I’m going to
buy that album. I’m pretty sure that’s
how it happened. I listened again and again.
I remember exactly how I discovered
Hannah Glavor. Several months ago,
we saw Elbow live. Elbow, if you’ve
been following any of my writing about
music, you’ll know, is my current
favorite band on the planet. Hannah
Glavor did an opening set–just her
and an acoustic guitar, joined on a few
songs by another guitarist. Opening
for a big rock band with just her voice
and her guitar–she crushed it. After
the show, I wondered, who is this Hannah
Glavor person? Turned out she was
a local. I got on to bandcamp almost
immediately after and ordered her record.
Discovering that her album was as good
if not better than I expected it would be,
I reached out to her to see if she would
do a set with my band, Here Comes Everybody,
at the 20th anniversary record release
party for our album Submarines. She said
yes. So, on that January evening I got to
hear her play one more time and it was
glorious. And here I am a few months
later spinning her album, Hold On, Hold Tight.
In a similar vein to Margaret Glaspy,
Hannah Glavor begins her record with a
rocker. I mean, it’s a heavy 86 beats per
minute kind of rocker, but it’s melodic
and anthemic and great. And the guitar
work in this second tune, “Back of My Mind”
is rhythmically inspired, and the
instrumental tag after the chorus
is as hooky as any guitar riff you’ll find.
“I’m Fine” is the clear single, and if there
was a rock god in heaven, it should be
a huge hit. If you’re a fan of Boy Genius
or any of the three women in that super trio,
you’re going to love Hannah Glavor.
Her voice is not as distinctive as Glaspy’s,
but it’s way easier on the ears.
Again, like the Glaspy album, there’s not
a single sleeper in the bunch. Great songs.
At once hopeful and sad, there’s an emotional
range here that is a bit breathtaking.
But as great as she is as a singer, player, and
songwriter, her personal story is wild and inspiring.
The way she tells it, a number of years ago
she had a brain tumor “the size of a
Twinkie” removed from her brain. So hers
is a story of tremendous recovery and
resilience–and if you get a chance to see
her live, she will tell you about it, and about
the lessons she’s gleaned about life and
living as a result. Preach, sister, preach.
We are lucky she is in the world and we
are lucky to have her music and this record:
Hold On, Hold Tight. Words to live by, indeed.
Notes on the vinyl editions:
- Margaret Glaspy, Echo the Diamond, ATO Records, 2023, translucent black vinyl (cool!)
- Hannah Glavor, Hold On, Hold Tight, independent release, 2024, multi-color pastel swirl vinyl (super cool!)
In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing at least one, sometimes two or three long skinny poem-like-things in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric.
michael jarmer 