Ontario Folk Duo Blends Old-Time Drive, Lyrical Balladry, and Close Harmony
There are records born out of careful planning, and then there are records born out of the kind of moment that changes your perspective completely. For Hannah and Nathan, that moment came late one rainy night on a Northern Ontario highway when their vehicle was struck by an SUV while travelling to a weekend of performances. Shaken but unharmed, the pair still made it to the stage — and somewhere on the drive home, decided it was finally time to make a record together.
The result is Love & Labour, a debut duo album deeply rooted in Appalachian and old-time traditions, blending clawhammer banjo, fiddle, guitar, and beautifully intertwined harmonies into something both timeless and deeply personal. Across eleven tracks — including originals, traditional songs, a contemporary cover, and original fiddle tunes — the album captures the raw immediacy and emotional honesty that has made their live performances so compelling since they first began performing together in 2022.
With Hannah’s award-winning background in traditional folk music and Nathan’s experience with The Barrel Boys, Love & Labour feels less like a side project and more like a natural meeting point between two artists who instinctively understand each other musically. Their voices move effortlessly between lead and harmony, carrying echoes of bluegrass and narrative folk traditions while still sounding unmistakably their own.
First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?
We’re Hannah & Nathan (aka Hannah Shira Naiman and Nathan Smith), a folk duo that performs a mix of original and traditional songs inspired by our shared love of Appalachian traditional music. We’re best known for our harmony singing, accompanied by Hannah’s clawhammer-style banjo and Nathan’s fiddle and guitar. We both come from small towns in Ontario — Hannah lives in Huntsville, and Nathan lives in Smiths Falls.
We first met several years ago at a house concert in North Bay (where Nathan grew up, and where Hannah was living at the time), where we were sharing a double bill. We had each sent the other an original song ahead of time to accompany and sing harmony on, and when we played and sang together, the blend was so satisfying that we just kept doing it — first jamming our favourite fiddle tunes, then recording on each other’s projects, then touring together, and finally making the decision to write new music as a team and create this album.
Can you take us back to that rainy night on the Northern Ontario highway? Did that experience immediately change how you viewed making music together?
On that rainy night, we were on our way to the home of our good friends Pat and Julie, who run this magical traditional music and dance organization called AlgomaTrad on St. Joseph Island, just east of Sault Ste. Marie. We had a busy weekend scheduled filled with elementary school performances, a house concert, educational workshops, and a community square dance.
We were about 15 minutes from our destination, about to make the turn off the highway, and then — POW! — we were hit by another vehicle at full speed. Thankfully, we, the other driver, and our instruments were all unscathed, but both vehicles were total write-offs.
Our friend Pat came to the scene, we transferred our gear, said goodbye to Hannah’s car, and headed to our hosts’ place where grilled cheese and whiskey awaited. We decided to go through with every engagement that weekend, and we’re so glad we did. It became this incredibly beautiful weekend of community music and connection, made even more meaningful by our brush with mortality.
We spent a lot of time talking about how meaningful folk music is, what it means to create within a living roots tradition, and how important music and dance are in building connection between people. We came away from that weekend feeling renewed and inspired by the idea that we’re meant to do the work of creating and sharing art in our communities.
On the long drive home, we came up with a plan to co-write music specifically for the two of us to perform together and eventually make this duo album. From that point on, that became the focus of the project.
Love & Labour blends Appalachian, old-time, bluegrass, country, and folk influences so seamlessly. Were there specific artists or records that helped shape the album’s sound?
Between the two of us, we listen to a lot of different music, both traditional and modern. Appalachian old-time music is definitely our biggest shared passion, and we routinely sit down for hours and play fiddle tunes together into the wee hours. But we knew we wanted this collection of songs to feel like a synthesis of old and new.
Nathan loves bluegrass and country music, while Hannah gravitates toward old Appalachian and English ballads alongside early-2000s indie singer-songwriters. There’s a little bit of all of that on this record.
We love making music that intersects with timeless traditional sounds while bringing in modern textures and acknowledging our own personalities and varied tastes. We’ve both explored that idea in previous projects, but this album is probably the furthest expression of it so far.
Some traditional artists who influenced us include Pharis and Jason Romero, Sam Amidon, Mary Alice and Peter Amidon, Arnie Naiman, Riley Baugus, and The Silly Sisters. On the more contemporary side, there are hints of Iron & Wine and The Milk Carton Kids throughout the record.
The interplay between clawhammer banjo, fiddle, and guitar is such a defining part of the record. How did you approach arranging the instrumentation so it stayed both raw and dynamic?
We perform primarily as a duo, and we’ve played these songs countless times with just the two of us. Over many hours of shaping the arrangements, we found ways to make the music feel complete and exciting using only two instruments and our voices.
A lot of that comes from the textural interplay between Hannah’s banjo and whatever Nathan chooses to play on fiddle or guitar. Even though we added instrumentation to some tracks, we still wanted the record to feel rooted in that intimate duo sound.
One of the beautiful things about playing as a duo is the amount of control you have over dynamics and the closeness between the musicians. You can make tiny adjustments in volume or tone and the other person instantly reacts. It becomes this playful conversation.
Every decision about adding instruments or bringing in guest players revolved around preserving that feeling. We chose musicians we trusted — people with strong musical personalities who are also sensitive accompanists capable of elevating the songs without overpowering them.
With seven originals alongside traditional songs and a contemporary cover, how did you decide which songs belonged on this debut record?
We wanted the collection to reflect our identity as songwriters first and foremost. We both love writing new songs that sound like they’ve been around forever.
We believe musical traditions are alive — that old music doesn’t belong in a museum. There’s a throughline between historical players and modern writers, and creating new songs that fit within those traditions helps us feel connected to the communities and histories that brought us here.
Some of the original songs are deeply personal. The title track “Love and Labour” reflects on the aftermath of the car accident and the calling to devote ourselves to our art. “Little Bird” explores companionship and loss, while “Younger Days” grapples with suicide and the experience of being left behind.
We also wanted to include traditional songs as a nod to our shared repertoire and musical community. Our arrangement of “Turtle Dove” comes from Peter Amidon by way of Bessie Jones, who learned it from her grandfather, Jet Samson, an ex-enslaved man. We often open our shows with it, and the simplicity of the a cappella arrangement felt too special not to record.
“The Blackest Crow,” inspired by a version from Arnie Naiman, became another immediate favourite. Hannah already had a strong connection to the song, but once Nathan added fiddle and harmonies, it took on a whole new life.
The lone contemporary cover, “Blood Is Thicker Than Water” by Campbell Woods, also felt important to include. Campbell is a close friend of Nathan’s from Smiths Falls, and his songwriting is devastatingly beautiful. The song fit perfectly within the album’s broader theme of blending old traditions with modern storytelling while also celebrating local music communities.
Ultimately, the songs that made the album were the ones we loved singing most together — the songs where that unique blend between our voices created something special.
Guest musicians like Jim Bowskill, Gary Craig, and Tim O’Reilly add beautiful textures to the album. What did they bring to these songs?
We’re incredibly grateful for each of these musicians.
Starting with Gary Craig: adding percussion to traditional music can be risky, because it’s easy for it to overpower the songs. Gary understood the balance instinctively. He arrived at Jason Mercer’s tiny studio with what felt like an entire truckload of percussion instruments and experimented carefully until he found exactly the right textures and rhythms. Once he locked into the songs, we could immediately feel them come alive in a whole new way.
Jim Bowskill’s pedal steel and dobro were added later in the process at his studio, Ganaraska Recording Co. When Jason Mercer added Jim’s parts into the mixes, we were blown away. His pedal steel added this emotional sweep that pushed some of the songs toward modern Americana and alt-country territory.
Tim O’Reilly has been a longtime collaborator, especially with Nathan through The Barrel Boys. There’s a deep trust and musical understanding there that only comes from years of playing together. Tim is an exceptional multi-instrumentalist with incredible instincts and taste, but he’s also very ego-free and always focused on serving the song. Having him involved made the whole recording process stronger both musically and personally.
Now that this debut duo album is finally out in the world, what’s next?
It’s a really exciting moment for us. We’ve lined up an album release tour throughout Ontario and Quebec this month, and after that we head straight into summer festivals and camps. In October, we’ll also be heading west to British Columbia for a HomeRoutes tour.
This project still feels like it’s in its infancy, which makes this year especially exciting as we bring the music to as many places as we can.
Honestly, it feels a bit like that moment in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when the elevator bursts through the roof and starts flying through the air. It’s equal parts thrilling and terrifying — but there’s nowhere else we’d rather be.