There Are No Secrets In This Town

THERE ARE NO SECRETS IN THIS TOWN A new album from David Hanners Awhile back, I stumbled across an interview of a woman who ran a brothel in Terre Haute, the Indiana town across the Wabash from my native Clark County, Illinois. The transcript led to my new album, There Are No Secrets in This Town. The woman told great stories. She talked about politics, culture, Prohibition, fashion and anything else that came into her head. She lived in a city busy living up to (or down to) it's reputation as a place where anything goes, and I thought her characters would make great songs. I've always tried to emphasize storytelling in my songwriting -- I am a folksinger, after all -- and I like to think the 11 songs on There Are No Secrets in This Town carry on that tradition. The songs feature classic characters I've come to know through growing up and living in the Midwest: sad-sack men, vets on barstools telling war stories, men and women with secrets and even author James Jones (From Here to Eternity), who frequented Terre Haute's brothels when he was taking a break from writing in nearby Marshall, Ill. I really had no plans to do a record, but after a gig one night, a guy named Fred Grittner came up to me and said he liked my songs and wanted to record me. Fred is a darn-fine singer-songwriter in his own right, and we bonded over our mutual love for the late John Stewart, one of the finest songwriters this country has ever produced. I told Fred about the transcript and that I had a handful of songs and that maybe I wouldn't mind recording an EP, if he was game. He was. Fred's Black Crow Studio in St. Paul is a pretty nice set-up, but when I told him I wanted to take a simple approach to recording, he came up with the idea to record everything with a single stereo ribbon microphone, giving the album a live-in-the-room feel that puts the listener in the center of a group of musicians. And what a group. Yet again, some great musicians bailed me out. Fred played mandolin, mandola, guitar and added vocals. Karl Burke, of bluegrass festival favorites The Eelpout Stringers, played bass. Lonnie Knight, an amazing songwriter and guitarist whose resume includes the Hoopsnakes and Mosquito Shoals, added lead guitar. Bob Nordquist, another fine songwriter who has a band called The Intangibles, blew harmonica. Erik Brandt, founder of the Urban Hillbilly Quartet, played accordion. And Amy Brockman, whose voice is like slippery elm soothing a raspy throat, added great harmonies. I'm happy with the way There Are No Secrets in This Town turned out. The madam's characters were everyday people, and I think listeners will recognize a few people they know. I know I did.