CD: Blueprints for Descent (Painted Shadows Music)

Home: Rochester, MN

Style: Acoustic folk singer/ songwriter/ poet

Quote: "I love the images that draw in several senses at once".

By Jennifer Layton

Mark Hannan was raised on classical music and church hymns. When embarking on his debut CD, he took with him into the studio the elegance of classical music and the mystery of the hymns. Listening to Blueprints for Descent is like hearing a symphony performing a Greek tragedy using folk music.

I occasionally hear other influences, like the hint of Spanish guitar style that introduces “You Behind The Wheel.” There’s drama when he dips into minor chords, and reverence in tracks like “Other Side of Goodbye.”

Almost every track deals with sadness, lost love, hopelessness .... but the music is too intriguing to get pulled to deeply into the dark corridors the lyrics explore. I love the images that draw in several senses at once: “I can’t get the smell from my fingertips of perfume, smoke, and moonlight...” he sings in “Perfume and Regrets.” Later, when describing an all-consuming love that burned out and left ashes, he remembers that “the asphyxiation was sublime.”

We get dark, spoken word poetry that precedes the ominous intro of “Postcards From the Fall.” We get something powerful and dignified in song after song that deals with darkness and pain. Gracefully done.