With every song, Hannah Aldridge is facing down demons of a life once lived from substance abuse to failed relationships and scars from the lashes of the bible belt. Raised in the extremely religious State of Alabama, Hannah has since young years felt an affinity to the darkness found in the Southern Gothic themes and has developed a fondness of writing songs with elements of horror brought on by dark thoughts of depression or hopelessness. Finding a calling in exploring these heavy-laden feelings and impulses that we all have, but are typically afraid to indulge in she explains, “The devil and darkness were always the boogeyman under the bed for me. It still is honestly. So that naturally weaves itself into a lot of songs. I find it extremely fun to sit and think of what type of song I would write for a particular scene in a movie or subjects that really scare me.”
Now, the artist presents the old Christmas hymn ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’ in her own hauntingly eery version. Staying true to the sound Hannah has established from mixing her personal life and the famous sounds of her hometownwithinfluences from all across the rock genre, this new track carries all that is to be expected from an Aldridge release. Working with one foot in country music and the other in rock has givenhera fresh kind of Southern Rock, styled by Southern Gothic storytelling, while the honesty she crafts into each track is offset by her stubborn, even defiant, nature – giving her music a hopeful silver lining. On the new Christmas single Hannah took the opportunity to work in the studio with her father, Muscle Shoals legend Walt Aldridge.
Hannah tells us: “It was such a fun experience to get to be back in the studio with my Dad to record a Christmas song. I don’t get the chance often to work with my Dad, so when the opportunity comes up I am always excited to see what we can create. It can be a daunting task to take such a classic piece of music and try to make it your own, so we tried to bring my personality into it as an artist while maintaining the integrity of the song. In the end, we came up with a version of ‘O Come O Come Emmanuel’ that we felt was exciting and cinematic, without being overdone.”
Hannah Aldridge releases the new seasonal single ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel‘ for download and streaming via Icons Creating Evil Art.