While Bristolian singer-songwriter Clara Mann may be a new name to some, her public presence has grown thanks to some beautifully crafted singles like I Didn’t Know You Were Leaving Today, Thoughtless and Station Song, which all share an instrumental sparseness that places her mesmerising vocals centre stage.
When listening to Clara Mann, you become aware of the timeless nature of her songs; on the one hand, they are modern and contemporary, but they have a powerful, timeless quality that also places them further back in time. Initially, I was reminded of Vashti Bunyan, but when I read that Molly Drake, Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf were influences that had been passed onto her via her mother, things began to fall into place. Like Drake, she shares that vivid vision and her songs are also calming and ambiguous.
Something all those singers had in common was the ability to bring a theatrically moving quality to their music by using just their voices. Clara Mann possesses that same treasure; she’s living the song and possessing it in a most profound way. Subtlety is key to that performance, and she does it so well. Her songs stop you in your tracks.
Her latest single, Thread, also our Song of the Day, exemplifies these qualities. It is accompanied by a video made by the CLUMP Collective. Thread is a deeply felt song, inspired by Maggie, a woman, now passed, who Clara met while living on Dartmoor:
“I wrote this the night I got home after spending three months living with my boyfriend in a one-room cabin on Dartmoor. The cabin was at the edge of a farm owned by a wonderful woman called Maggie, who was in her 90s- over the three months, she became incredibly important to me. She had immense spirit, an absolutely wicked sense of humour, and was an incredibly powerful presence on the farm. We’d spend hours with her in the kitchen in the evenings, cooking for her and laughing – I loved her so much.
“That night, when I got home, I got a call saying Maggie had gone into hospital, and that she might be dying. I didn’t know what to do, all I could do was try and hold onto her in my heart. I suddenly wrote Thread, and recorded it on my phone. It’s dedicated to her, but it’s about the whole of that autumn, and the grief and magic of that strange time. Maggie survived that night, and lived another year, before leaving us about a month ago. Traces of her light remain, and she touched me and many others deeply- I hope we meet again someday.”
Clara heads out on an EU/UK tour supporting Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen which is sure to bring her a larger fanbase, one she most definitely deserves.
Clara has signed to 7476 (Matilda Mann, Matt Maltese, Lizzie Reid). ‘Thread’ is available to stream now: https://linktr.ee/claramannn
Live Dates
May 7th – Hamburg, Kulturkirche Altona*
May 8th – Berlin, PassionKirche*
May 10th – Munich, Freiheitshalle*
May 11th – Zurich, Bogen F*
May 12th – Turin, Circolo della Musica*
May 14th – Paris, La Cafe de la Danse*
May 16th – Cologne, Kulturkirche Koln*
May 17th – Gent, Handelsbeurs*
May 19th – Leeds, Left Bank*
May 20th – London, Union Chapel*
May 23rd – Pepper Cannister, Dublin*
May 25th – St Luke’s, Glasgow*
June 2nd – How The Light Gets In Festival, Hay-on-Wye
June 11th – Off The Grid Festival, Bristol
July 29th – Farmfest, Bruton
July 31st – Deershed, Topcliffe
*supporting Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen