Ears Wide Open: Daisy House

Kevin Bronson on November 23rd, 2016

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There is no shortage of male/female musical duos in Southern California environs right how, but Long Beach’s Daisy House is an anomaly. It features 23-year-old singer Tatiana Hammond in collaboration with fiftysomething singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Doug Hammond, her father. The band, the elder Hammond says, started “as a lark when I hooked up with an old high school friend from the ’70s in 2012. We continue to do this because I’m retarded about music and I want to see how good we can get. … My daughter just keeps me off the streets in the meantime.”

Daisy House has released three full-lengths, a self-titled affair in 2013, “Beaus and Arrows” in 2014 and “Western Man” early this year. They display a jaw-dropping command of classic rock and folk, especially the ’70s vintage, with the Hammonds trading off on vocals, Doug the vaguely weathered but hopeful troubadour and Tatiana the clarion angel from AM radio’s past. You’re not likely to find too many bands these days citing Fairport Convention as a major influence — much less know the nuances between British and American folk (they do both) — and Tatiana is likely the rare twentysomething who might have Sandy Denny, Joni Mitchell and Karen Dalton in her singers’ pantheon rather than any of today’s stars.

“Say Goodbye,” “Golden Heart” and “Twenty-one” from the latest album are exemplary of the younger Hammond’s effortless splendor; “Twilight in the Palace of Reason” finds world-weary Mr. Hammond tackling tangled emotions in the wake of the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris (and referencing Mr. Lennon, to boot): “You can ‘imagine there’s no countries’ / but they still won’t let you in,” he sings.

In September, Daisy House released the new single “Languages,” an ’80s/’90s-styled rocker recalling the harder-edged music of Aimee Mann. It’s the first song they’ve released that Doug Hammond didn’t write; it was co-written by Paul Gagliardi and Mark Lewis of the local band Omagaro Miguel. It will appear on Daisy House’s forthcoming fourth album “Crossroads,” but considering national events, the duo decided “the time for the song was now.” Agreed.

||| Stream: “Languages”