Hannah Cohen – “Dusty”

Josh Goleman
Hannah Cohen is a musician working right now, a singer-songwriter who has collaborated with Sufjan Stevens, but she makes music that would work perfectly well soundtracking a montage in an early-’70s movie. Maybe it’s two people falling in love. Maybe it’s one cherubic-faced hippie ambling across a daffodil-dotted menu. Maybe it’s someone looking out a train window as the spectacular lens-flares hit. When you put on Cohen’s new song “Dusty,” you can pretty much close your eyes and picture any of those things.
Hannah Cohen’s new album Earthstar Mountain arrives later this month, and we’ve posted her songs “Earthstar” and “Draggin’.” Album opener “Dusty” is a breezy, jazzy psych-folk excursion with flutes and strings and trumpets and congas. I’m probably just thinking about this because we just lost Roberta Flack, but the track reminds me of Flack’s earliest records, when she was rooted as much in folk as in R&B. Cohen says, “‘Dusty’ is about the relentless passage of time that we will all experience, and the way beauty and sorrow intertwine at every turn.” Check it out below.
Earthstar Mountain is out 3/28 on Bella Union/Congrats.