This Is Good: Hannah Williams & The Affirmations and their "50 Foot Woman"

Updated in August 2022

Have you seen any recent Infiniti automobile commercials wherein a female vocalist is singing "I'm standing on a mountain, about to fall?" If you have and you want to hear more, or if you haven't and you want to hear some awesome, soulful rock and roll, be sure to check out Hannah Williams & The Affirmations and their "50 Foot Woman" song.

With its driving rythym accentuated by splashy, pyschedelic-ish guitar fills, 50 Foot Woman sounds to me like some awesome rock music with a funky edge. If you look-up Hannah Williams and the Affirmations on Google Search, you'll find that the majority of posts refer to her as a British Soul singer. The Affirmations are also commonly referred to as a British soul band.

After superstar Jay-Z sampled Hannah Williams & The Affirmation's Late Nights and Heartbreak song  on his "4:44" album, the band has become well-known worldwide.

In 2012, Hannah Williams' debut album, A Hill of Feathers was released. At the time, she was leading another excellent band named Hannah Williams & the Tastemakers.

Try checking-out the YouTube video for the song Work it Out from A Hill of Feathers. The band backing Hannah Williams consists of two violinists, a drummer, keyboardist, guitarist, bass guitarist, a trumpeter and saxophonist. The performance takes place outdoors, in a rural field, and it's pretty powerful.

Hannah's vocals on Work it Out are powerful and passionate, and the only performers I could compare her to are Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin. Good company. 

    

                    

If you listen to Ain't Enough (Record Kicks) from 2016's Late Nights and Heartbreak CD, you'll encounter a very funky, 1960s-Stax Records-Memphis Soul groove. Hannah Williams' strong vocals on this song again remind me of both Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin, and the wah-wah guitar intro is very different and tasteful.

There aren't too many musical acts I'd recommend these days, but Hannah Williams and the Affirmations are an act that are worth giving a big thumbs-up to.