EYE ON THE PRIZE

Erstwhile blues-rocker Hannah Wicklund finds her true self with an album of songs she calls the most authentic I’ve ever written.”

- ANDREW DALY

LISTENING TO HANNAH Wicklund's music, you can tell she's been on the edge. That's nothing new though, as 2018's Hannah Wicklund and the Steppin Stones was a buffet of blues-rock songsmithery defined by mega-sounding guitars.

We knew Wicklund could rock, and it was evident that her voice could match even the highest registers that her cache of Tom Anderson guitars could conjure. But we didn't know that in the five years since that album's release, Wicklund was subconsciously hell-bent on becoming a version of herself that would be remembered as halcyon.

If that sounds lofty or weighty, fair enough. But listening to Wicklund's latest, The Prize (Strawberry Moon Records), there's no denying the radiance that blooms throughout it. Wicklund apparently would agree. "There are songs on here that are the most authentic I've ever written," she tells us. "The title track is the deepest piece of music I've done. It wasn't intentional, and I didn't set out to do that. But it's an example of the beauty of this album, as it's me dealing with issues like being transient, being back in my childhood room at my parents, and expressing who I was becoming."

Who Wicklund has become is of note, as The Prize's 10 tracks run the gamut of emotion via guitar and piano. Laying her soul bare was one thing, but to get it all on tape in a serious yet whimsical way took some help from Greta Van Fleet bassist Sam Kiszka.

"Sam helped this record be less high stress," she says. "He came from a different world, and that let us experiment and breathe rather than just hammer things out like in the past.