American Idol’s Hannah Harper

Hannah Harper began her musical journey when she was just nine years old. With the legacy of Bob Lewis and The Bob Lewis Family as her foundation, Hannah grew up in Southeast Missouri surrounded by the rich traditions of bluegrass gospel music. Hannah took to the road with her family band, The Harper Family, where she honed her singing and guitar skills, and developed a profound passion for songwriting and music ministry. Her family came off the road, and she took a position as worship leader at a small church in Missouri. That’s where she met her husband, Devon. It wasn’t long after they were married, and starting a family, before she got the performance bug again.

The now mom of three, picked up her guitar and started writing about the joys and struggles of being a mom. Out of that came the song, “String Cheese.” It caught the attention of ABC’s American Idol, and quickly brought her to the front row of America’s attention. Things are happening fast as she is quickly becoming a finalist favorite heading into the live rounds of the show as of the writing of this article. I was so excited to grab a few minutes with this rising star before the roller coaster started.

Family Roots Run Deep
Hannah told me that both of her parents played music when they were teenagers. “My mom grew up in a family band called, The Bob Lewis Family, very different from the Lewis family in the southern gospel world. The Bob Lewis Family put on more of a Branson style show,” she said. “People ate it up, because they would sing, and dance, and perform the full blown variety thing. Mom met my dad; at a bluegrass festival.”

Hannah’s grandpa hired her dad to be the banjo player in his band because, “they had seven kids, and none of them knew how to play banjo,” Hannah laughed. “I think they only traveled for a couple months before mom and dad ran and off got married.”

That endevor of the music started settling down when Hannah was born. “I’m one of three,” she said. “My parents still played in church, but in 2009, when I was nine years old, my dad came home from work one day, and said he just felt like God was calling him to do something more than working in the lead mine, and he wanted to answer that calling. So he told my mom, ‘I think we need to sell our house and go on the road.”

Out On The Road
At that time, only one of her siblings could play an instrument. Hannah’s mom played bass. Obviously, her dad played banjo, and her oldest brother, Dalton, could play guitar. But then the other two, Hannah and her brother Dylan, couldn’t play anything. “So we started learning,” she exclaimed. It was pretty wild. We did it. Dad sold our house, and literally sold everything in it. He bought a tour bus; like a 90s Eagle. It was bright, bright red. And we hit the road. We did that from 2009 up until 2016. We sang at churches too. It’s very different than the genre that I’m pursuing now, because when we sang at churches, we would only ask for love offerings. So you didn’t know if you were going to come out with $100 or $1,200. We really relied on the Lord to just navigate that for us, and he did for many years. That carried us through. We were never without. God supplied, and he had favor on us in those times of ministry.”

“In 2016 my dad was ready to come off the road because he was just tired,” Hannah recalled. There was an elderly man at a church in the little tiny town of Burke Street; little bitty church up on a hill. He said, ‘Hey, we’re looking for a worship team. I’ll pay each of you guys to take the position. The three of us, and my dad, agreed. We all had the title worship leader at that church, just so that he could get us on payroll; just because he wanted to make it worth it for us. I was 15, and I was making a salary at this church, because this man just loved me. I think he’s the one who really footed the bill in the whole building. You know what I mean?”

On The Road, Again
“We led worship at that church for seven years, and that’s where I met my husband, and that’s where I got married, and life just kind went back to normal.”

“In 2023 though, I convinced my family to go back out on the road to do ministry again. The first time around, there were five of us on the bus. Now, we all had kids. Now, there where 14 of us,” she laughed.

Hannah was quick to say, ‘let’s just try weekends,’ since we all had jobs, and, ‘let’s just do it through the summer.’ I was itching to pursue music. So we did that the summer of 2023, we traveled; there were 14 of us, together, on another bus. It was an old 90’s bus that we converted to sleep all of us.”

Then Hannah’s sister-in-law got sick, and they had to come off the road. So they sold the bus, (to Mo Bandy.) and everything calmed down, again. “Well, in that calm down season Postpartum Depression hit me pretty hard,” Hannah recalled. “I was just itching to pursue music, and I was just having a hard time, feeling in a slump in my house every single day. So I started posting videos, because I wanted an outlet. It just felt like for so long, I didn’t think I could do anything in music while I was raising kids; like, I thought I could only be mom.”

Making Music Differently
So Hannah started writing songs. “I loved writing,” she said. “I still love it; I have such a big passion for writing. I started writing music; only sharing it with friends and family. I wrote the song “String Cheese.” I wrote and recorded it, but I didn’t really put it out there much. Then I posted it on my personal Facebook page and let people know Mother’s Day was the release date. I told people my story behind it, but I really never thought that it would reach many people outside of my small circle. I wrote it just to be an encouragement, you know. Then American Idol watched a live feed of mine on Tiktok. I was live, and I was just singing, and somebody was like, ‘would you be interested in auditioning?’ I thought that it was a hoax,” she quipped. “You’re not a real person.’ Then I got a phone call with them, and they went over the logistics behind auditioning. At that time, I only had a couple 100 followers on Tiktok. I felt like God had opened the door. And since then, we’ve just been running through doors, over, and over, and over again.”

Establishing A Style
Although Hannah has roots deep in the Bluegrass community, her sound these days feels more grassy-country, maybe. “That’s exactly what I’m shooting for, the grassy country feel,” she said.

And while you don’t hear as much family harmonies going on right now, “that’s something that I want,” Hannah said. “Bluegrass is known for having three part harmony. Bill Monroe, all of those people like that, more or less invented that old sound. I love the old country style, but I want the family harmonies to be ingrained in all of it. I’ve actually been traveling with both of my brothers; it’s just in our DNA, you know? I think that’s missing from the new country sound; those harmonies, because normally you hear just the one voice. I want everyone to be equally heard, and for that tone to be there, like the old grassy sound.”