Biography
David Hanners was born to tell stories. He’s from the corn and soybean fields of East Central Illinois and now lives in Manchester, England. Need some storytelling bona fides? He may be the only folksinger with a Pulitzer Prize.
His new album, Llano Estacado, features songs culled from his time spent living on the Texas Panhandle. They are songs of the expanse, the sinners and the saints, the broken hearts.
His songs feature vibrant characters inhabiting stories that ring true in ways reminiscent of Steve Earle, Ray Wylie Hubbard, the McMurtrys (James AND Larry…) and Rodney Crowell. His first record, Nothingtown, was a Critic’s Year-end Top Ten selection by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The follow-up release, The Traveler’s Burden, was “like Townes Van Zandt doing Nebraska,” said MinnPost.com
His third independent release, There Are No Secrets in This Town “plays out like a musical version of a McMurtry novel,” wrote Terry Paul Roland, a featured contributor to No Depression.
Critic Mark Bennett of the Terre Haute Tribune-Star summed up his music as, “authentic, sparse prairie folk.”
David grew up in Casey, a town of 2,300 in East Central Illinois. Drive 20 minutes to the east and you’ll see where James Jones wrote “From Here to Eternity.” Drive 20 minutes south and you’ll find the hometown and final resting place of folk legend Burl Ives. Drive 20 minutes north and you’ll be in the hometown of “Citizen Kane” cinematographer Gregg Toland.
And, yes, he has a Pulitzer Prize (Explanatory Journalism) and spent most of his life working as a journalist. He brings a reporter’s eye to his songs, and that comes through on your first listen.
