Hannah Andersen is hardly your typical performing artist.
With only minimal training, Andersen still has developed an avid fan base for her singing.
And she never knows where the requests will come from.
“We’ll get calls out of the blue,” her mother, Alisha noted. “We just got a call from Garnett, asking if she could perform there.”
So Hannah, who turns 14 next month, will sing in Garnett Saturday morning, and then head back to Iola for an evening performance as part of the Friends of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center annual meeting.
Not bad for a youngster who hadn’t stepped on a stage until moving with her family to Iola from her native Colorado about 2½ years ago. Hannah’s dad, David, is a dentist with the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas.
IT WAS shortly after arriving in Iola that Hannah’s path crossed with that of another precocious performer. Hannah’s classmate, and eventual best friend, Josie Plumlee already was a skilled musician and singer.
It was her new friend who would frequently encourage Hannah to sing along with songs they heard on the radio.
And while Hannah’s singing voice was developing into a devastatingly soulful alto, her skills with musical instruments was less evident.
“I was in a music class in the sixth grade, and I tried to play “Puff the Magic Dragon,” on the ukulele, but I couldn’t get it,” Hannah recalled. “So I gave up.”
About a year later, Josie encouraged Hannah to try again.
Same result.
“I tried it and almost gave it up” again, Hannah noted.
But amid her frustration came a note; a single note.
“It sounded good,” Hannah said, “and I liked it.”
From that single note, Hannah raced home, pored over YouTube videos on ukulele chords, and taught herself how to play.
IT SOON became part of her repertoire.
That summer, Hannah entered the Allen County Fair Talent Show, and brought home second place. She and Josie teamed up a year later, and won. Then, she entered a talent show as part of the 2016 Farm-City Days Celebration, where she nabbed second place, “behind a guy who could play electric guitar with his teeth,” she noted wistfully.
Her reputation soon grew.
Hannah was invited to sing prior to a Vogt Sisters performance last fall near Iola. She also has performed at Allen County Farmers’ Market sessions, and occasionally is asked to sing the national anthem for Iola Middle School football games.
Meanwhile, she joined the IMS jazz band, where her former teacher, Matt Kleopfer, encouraged Hannah to provide vocal accompaniment to some of the band’s tunes.
In the past, such a request would have been quickly rebuffed by the instinctively shy Hannah.
“He purposely gave her songs she’d never heard of before, and wasn’t comfortable with,” Alisha noted.
The goal: to broaden Hannah’s musical horizon.
“She’s really become more comfortable, and a lot of that is because of Josie and Mr. K,” Alisha said of her daughter. “We’re not sure where this singing talent came from. It’s definitely from her father or me. We’re the ones you tell ‘SHHHH’ if you hear us singing.”
HANNAH’S SET list consists mainly of songs she hears on the radio.
She professes to have no real favorite genre.
Ironically, she claims to not be a fan of country music — “I don’t like the twangy sounds” — but some of her signature pieces come from such artists as Johnny Cash, The Dixie Chicks and Miley Cyrus.
But she also gives a soulful rendition of pop music artists, such as Major Lazer & DJ Snake, and their signature piece, “Lean On.”
“I’ll usually hear songs on the radio, and change them,” she said. The aforementioned “Lean On,” for example, comes at a slower, lower tempo than what’s heard on the radio.
“I like singing in my style,” she said, modestly.
STAGE FRIGHT, too, has become a thing of the past, to the point Hannah is more comfortable performing solo than as part of a group.
“I like that I don’t have to worry about matching up the timing with the rest of the group,” she explained.
And with the new school year comes new opportunities. She’s uncertain if she’ll join a choir, or band, for that matter.
“Actually, Josie says yes,” she laughed. “So maybe I will.”
