HAZZY BEE – THE STORM BEFORE THE CALM
Hazzy Bee (Sydney singer/songwriter Harry Levy) wears his heart on his sleeve. And on his pant leg, his shoe lace and in his hair – in short, he’s the poster boy for his own broken heart, the Andie MacDowell to his own emotional L’Oreal. On the surface there is nothing unusual about these songs of lost love, most of which busy us with forlorn memories of what we can assume are Levy’s own failed relationships. But after while the possibility emerges that perhaps Hazzy Bee craves these sour romantic episodes; his vocal style (reminiscent of Conor Oberst’s softer moments), his lilting guitar strums and his surprisingly biting rhyming couplets (“And then I had myself and epiphany: I was good to you and you were shit to me” provides a moment of refreshing frankness in Red Gumboots) are all angled perfectly towards a sweetly cynical folk persona. All This Money stands out, with robust and moving string arrangements challenging Levy’s precarious, whispering folk melodies; and The Storm’s swaying acoustic landscapes show off some real textural interest within a familiar format. Whether Levy’s heartbreak begat his songs about it, or the other way around, with the likes of Brain Campeau (producer) and Elana Stone (accordion) weighing in on this independent second release, Hazzy Bee is not to be taken with a grain of salt.
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