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Nov 17, 2020 By Joey Arnone Hannah Georgas

Canadian singer/songwriter Hannah Georgas has joined forces with Matt Berninger, vocalist of rock band The National, for a duet version of “Pray It Away.” The song was originally featured on Georgas’ critically acclaimed latest album, the Aaron Dessner-produced All That Emotion, which was released back in September via Brassland/Arts & Crafts. Listen to the duet below.

Georgas speaks about the genesis of “Pray It Away” in a press release: “In a lot of ways, All That Emotion is a personal record, but ‘Pray It Away’ ended up being very collaborative. I co-wrote the song with my producer Aaron Dessner, who sent me an instrumental during the time I was writing and demoing. A close friend of mine inspired the lyrics. She told me over dinner one night that a family member didn’t want to attend her wedding because she was marrying a woman. I wrote the song the next day using the chord progression from Aaron’s demo. It was upsetting to see my friend go through what she was dealing with at a time where she should have been celebrating.”

She also speaks a bit on how the collaboration between her and Berninger came to fruition, stating, “while Aaron and I were recording this song together, he mentioned it could be really great to ask Matt Berninger to sing on it. Ironically, it wasn’t until the pandemic hit when we were actually able to follow through with this idea, together. It’s so lovely it all worked out and we were able to make it happen in the end.”

Georgas joined The National’s touring band when they were supporting the release of their most recent album, I Am Easy to Find, which was released in May 2019. Berninger released his debut solo album, Serpentine Prison, last month on Book/Concord.

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