Whitney Mann is an artist I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know not through recordings but in a live setting. Her voice is unique – cavernous but able to blow you down, vulnerable but still strong as an old oak tree. Mann scoops under the notes and overturns them, creating a series of surprise attacks.
On her latest EP, This Little Light of Mine, Mann lets her voice step just outside the spotlight and lets tradition take center stage. The familiar title track is impeccably arranged, turning a song that’s been heard a million times before into something new and exciting. Mann gets back to her own roots with the instrumental closer “Stroll Through the Park”, a track that reintroduces her childhood playing piano to her songwriting process.
The EP’s stunner is “The Cruelest Thing”. The song is all but guaranteed to be stuck in your head for days and pulls the punches that those who’ve seen Whitney Mann perform live have come to expect. While there are some gutsy hollers, it’s the first lines of the verses that pull themselves back, revealing the plumb line of defeat that anchors the louder frustration of a love gone cold.
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This Little Light of Mine dropped 11.20.12.
Find out more about Whitney Mann at her official website.
Mixtapes|Heartbreaks 