Amazing Annette Hanshaw (its not the name of a superheroine comicbook, folks)

Just six weeks ago, I started listening to 20's and 30's music. It started out when I watched the movie 'Miracle on 42nd Street', and started looking for songs that were half as wonderful as the songs in the musical. And that is when I found..
(drumroll..)

Annette Hanshaw.

Now, most of the people generally have absolutely no idea who she is. Well, to anyone who ever stumbles across this blog, I say - she was a twenties-thirties singer - and an amazing one at that. She was considered a 'flapper' in her times..and I so badly wish I could have the kind of dresses she wore! But that is not the reason I love her. Atleast, that is NOT the only reason why I love her. Her music is the reason I really love her. She had this honey toned, sweet, petite voice, which literally makes my day. Whether I am low, high (!!) depressed or happy, her songs just..take me to an older era, where things were less complicated and loss of anything was taken seriously. Yes, sceptics might say that her music sounds like she always needs a man to protect her, and a modern woman should not say that..and blah blah blah...but to them I say, firstly, she was not a modern woman. She was born in 1901, for joy's sake! And secondly, instead of butchering the meaning of her lyrics, we should just listen to what she is singing. I mean, we should stop being structuralists or deconstructionists when we listen to her. Her music is lovely. It is evergreen. She makes me want to wish I was born in that era. I mean, look at these lyrics, for example -

"I'm a lonesome little babe in the woods..hmm mmm
I've got it, but it dont do me no good...
I cant hold a man the way that I should..hmm mmm..
I've got it, but it dont do me no good!!"

I dont know about others, but for me, it is just lovely..its coming from a world where there was no autotuning, no snorting of coke in a disco club (they were more discreet, you know). It is just plain music.

Her music is not didactic. It is not preachy. She is not trying to educate people about the distinction between good and bad, right and wrong. I mean, think about it..during her time, the world was being torn apart with wars, cold wars, collapse of economy...you name it. In a time like that, she was just being a normal girl with normal worries and dreams. For me, that takes so much courage. Maybe some person who listened to her music at the time felt a sense of normalcy. Isnt that a good enough reason to like her?!?!

Also, the fact that she "Hanshaw's" (a term I created) majority of her songs by adding a cute little "that's all" makes her more appealing to me!

Check her out!!

Peace.