REVIEW: Hannah Cohen @ Sinclair 4/9

Photo Credit: Josh Goleman

Review by Jonny Malyon

Hannah Cohen is a singer-songwriter currently on tour in support of her album, “Earthstar Mountain,” released in March 2025. She is currently living and writing music in the Catskills, and much of the new record is written about her experiences there. Cohen’s voice is mesmerizingly beautiful and is bolstered throughout by expert songwriting and dynamic instrumental arrangements, and I was really looking forward to seeing it come alive on stage. 

Cohen entered the bare stage wearing a funky denim-on-denim outfit with lots of great highlight colors and experimental stitch patterns. She instantly had the most lovely energy. She was wearing a hollow-body electric guitar with nylon strings, giving it a very bouncy, almost beachy tone. To her left was Halsey Phillip Harkins on the keyboard and drum machine, also adding vocal harmonies from time to time. The duo started playing the opening track on “Earthstar Mountain,” “Dusty.” I was immediately struck by Cohen’s voice live. It sounded lovely. Her vocal tone really cut through live in a way that I hadn’t fully appreciated when recorded. While it’s a very pure tone, it does have quite a bit of character and a lot of warmth. Cohen even whistled a bit towards the end of the song and quipped, “That was the flute!”

Before the following song, “Mountain,” the third song off of “Earthstar Mountain,” Kristin Slipp and Cole Kamen-Green of the opening duo, mmeadows, returned to the stage to further accompany Cohen. Slipp took up another keyboard and microphone for additional harmonies immediately to Cohen’s right. On Slipp’s right sat Karmen-Green on some sort of trumpet-synthesizer that he would mainly play bass lines on. He also had a regular trumpet. The three-part harmonies from Cohen, Harkins, and Slipp on “Mountain” sounded amazing.

Afterwards, Cohen commented that this was their style of NPR’s “Tiny Desk Concert.” She said it was her first time headlining a show in Boston and thanked the audience for being there. Cohen then dove into a new song called “I Loved You.” After sharing the title, she added the disclaimer, “past tense,” off-mic as she fell back to introduce the new tune on her guitar. The song was hauntingly beautiful, and I am excited to hear it fully fleshed out in the future. 

However, the biggest issue for the remainder of the set was how limiting this “Tiny Desk” style set-up really was. Cohen continued to play a mixture of songs from “Earthstar Mountain,” her preceding record, “Welcome Home,” along with some more new and unreleased songs. Unfortunately, without a live drummer and only a few of the songs being supported by a pre-recorded backing track, the energy range was severely limited, and the songs started to blur one into the next.

Cohen commented several times about how this set-up was new. She usually isn’t playing guitar live and is free to just sing, and typically has a different group of supporting musicians. Once, in between songs, she asked, “Is this even a show? It’s so quiet!” and later, “Wow, there are a lot of songs left.” It all came off as awkward and apologetic. Admittedly, there wasn’t a lot of energy, and the crowd was reflecting that absence. Cohen’s guitar parts were beautiful, but fairly simple. The keyboard parts were sparse, and the trumpet-synth felt a bit gimmicky. There were times when the set felt tight and read as a more intimate, almost acoustic style set. Other times, the songs yearned for more energy but fell flat as the supporting instrumentalists seemed almost unrehearsed and a bit uncomfortable on stage. 

Cohen’s penultimate song was “Summer Sweat,” also off the new record, and a backing track helped add a bit of groove to the rendition. The crowd started whistling and offering affirming feedback, excited to get some of the dance-ability we were hoping for all along. Cohen’s voice remained exquisite. However, as she finished the set with the stripped-down “Rag,” mmeadows left the stage, and a solid chunk of the audience took the opportunity to beat traffic. Possibly feeling the vaguely disappointed energy, Cohen promised to meet and chat with the remaining audience at the merch table after the song ended.

I’m not quite sure what happened to cause such a change of bandmates and stage set-up for the last stop on her tour, but I definitely felt a bit let down as a fan. I appreciate Cohen trying to make the best out of whatever the situation was, but I am immediately anxious to catch her live show again so that I can hopefully see her with a supporting band that does justice to her vivacious talent.