Llano Estacado
David Hanners / Kevin Kadidlo
2025
“I reached some plains so vast, that I did not find their limit anywhere I went, although I traveled over them for more than 300 leagues…with no more land marks than if we had been swallowed by the sea…. (T)here was not a stone, nor bit of rising ground, nor a tree, nor a shrub, nor anything to go by.” — Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, describing the Llano Estacado in a letter to the king of Spain, October 1541The six tales on Llano Estacado could happen anywhere. But they don’t. They happen on the Llano Estacado, 32,000 square miles of flat, featureless terrain, save for the occasional architecture of agriculture, ranching and oil. The songs are infused with the color, depth, desolation and desperation — and hints of redemption — of that region of Texas. Engineered and produced by Kuba Lewandowski.
“very cinematic” — AmericanaUK
“Hanners’ voice, a lived-in growl, is a perfect vehicle for these songs. Well worth a listen.” — AmericanaUK
“Everything about this record is perfect.” Jace Media Music
Slouching Towards Huntsville
Kevin Kadidlo / David Hanners
2025
If Llano Estacado was a nighttime drive, Slouching Towards Huntsville is the stretch of road you hit at about 2 a.m. The songs speak of the restlessness of the roads, a woman fed up with abuse, a two-bit thief who pulls one score too many, the uncertainty and bitterness of living in an era when masked immigration agents patrol the streets and a disappeared soul. But as Kadidlo warns on “Pay As You Go,” the record’s opening track:
Don’t you know time is just a hammer
That hammer gonna pound you ‘til it makes you toll
Burning up the hours on the Llano Estacado
And when you’re burning time here, you’re burning soul
And you pay as you go
Engineered and produced by Kuba Lewandowski
There Are No Secrets in This Town
David Hanners
2014
There Are No Secrets in This Town is an album inspired by an oral history of a Depression-era madam in Terre Haute, Indiana, where David went to college. The record explores characters and events that are somehow timeless. Engineered and produced by Fred Grittner.
“plays out like a musical version of a McMurtry novel,” — Terry Paul Roland, featured contributor to No Depression
The Traveler’s Burden
David Hanners
2009
The 12 songs of The Traveler’s Burden are portraits of a range of characters, each vividly drawn in a way that makes strangers familiar. Engineered and produced by Ric Lee.
“…like Townes Van Zandt doing Nebraska,” Jim Walsh, MinnPost.com