Jorge Sena - Sena D' Oru (2014)

I've been fortunate to listen, review, and chart Hanson's development since 06's wide open, old school debut Things I Miss, 08's equally rewarding Eleven Months, and 2010's richly acclaimed Once the Sun Goes Down. So when you've followed an exceptionally gifted artist from the get go, you begin to wonder—when?, why?, what's it going to take for said artist to oust the posers, media monsters, and regurgitating dinosaurs and hit the larger audience? Fellow followers of Lynne Hanson have waited awhile, and hopefully River of Sand is it.

Taking off from the high Canadian plane where Once the Sun Goes Down left us, River of Sand opens its ascent with its haunted namesake song. "See my life passing through my hands/Flecks of gold in a river of sand." From the start, Hanson, producer and fellow musician Lynn Miles and the emphatic players alongside them, craft a keen, free-wheeling singer/songwriter statement: Each song following the other in a natural flow, pollinating the tracks with equal sparkling tinctures of country, folk, and back porch picking. Whiskey and Tears, This Too Shall Pass, Heaven and Hell, Tightrope, Colour My Summers Blue…all the work of a determined and dedicated craftswoman to get to the heart of the matter. To understand the shadows of the reflections on that river.