Johanna Warren – brave & capable
After stepping away from music to recalibrate in the face of mysterious chronic illness, elusive Wales-based songwriter Johanna Warren returns May 27th with “brave & capable,” a stark and hypnotic new single born from a time of collective and personal reckoning.
Brimming with confessional warmth, the track signals a quiet but resolute reemergence gleaming with Warren’s signature emotional depth and precision, with the unfiltered honesty cranked to eleven: “Come on, Johanna, let’s just cut the crap,” Warren reprimands herself. “I don’t think you even know the names of everyone you’ve ever f*cked/ Girl, you’ve got a problem/ I’ll keep you in my prayers and wish you luck.”
Self-released and recorded alone in her bedroom, “brave & capable” feels like a reclamation of Warren’s core identity as an independent artist fiercely committed to her craft. Utilizing a barebones sonic palette of just double-tracked acoustic guitar and hushed, hard-panned vocals, the track channels the haunted intensity of Elliott Smith’s Needle in the Hay while wielding a worldview that is unmistakably Warren’s own.
Lyrically, the song unfolds as a series of conversations between two friends, in turns tender, accusatory, and searching. The slippery narrator traces the contours of addiction, chronic illness, faith and abuse, ultimately arriving at a boldly nuanced proclamation: “Glory be to God, and glory be to those who choose to walk away.”
The accompanying video, co-directed by Warren and longtime collaborator Richey Beckett and shot in Warren’s bedroom, is an arrestingly intimate DIY stop motion animation made up of thousands of photographs of the lyrics appearing to crawl over Warren’s body with increasing frenetic intensity.
Warren will be playing a select number of UK dates throughout the summer.
Johanna Warren Tour Dates
Sat.-Sun. May 23-25 – Hay-On-Wye, UK @ How The Light Gets In Festival
Wed. June 3 – York, UK @ Secret House Show
Thu. June 4 – Sheffield, UK @ Cafe No9
Fri. June 5 – Otley, UK @ Bloomfield Square
Sat. June 6 – Manchester, UK @ Café Blah
Sun. June 7 – Wrexham, UK @ Secret House Show
Sun. June 21 – London, UK @ Highgate Festival
Th. Aug. 6 – Penzance, UK @ The Acorn
Sat. Aug. 8 – Plymouth, UK @ Café Momus
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