Craig Hansen - Deadeyes (2021)

This album is about loss. Everyone experiences loss whether it’s a friend, a lover, a job, or, in my case, my vision. After years of deteriorating eyesight, I am now totally blind.
I grew up with music, with my father playing steel guitar and my mother a church soloist. Music was a part of my life as far back as I can remember. I started playing lead guitar in bands when I was 14. The bands have varied over the years with all styles of music, from hard rock to blues to country to americana.
Vision loss has not slowed me down when it comes to music. If anything, I am more active than ever.
This project was a chance to gain something despite loss. It was a challenge and a tremendous amount of fun.
I composed the songs, wrote the lyrics, played all the instruments, performed all the vocals and recorded each song.
The only exception to this is the song “Island Eyes.“ I wrote the song and played the lead guitar, John Henke wrote the lyrics and played bass, Steve Schultz played rhythm guitar, and Tim Young played drums.
I also have a lot of people to thank.
John Henke mastered my recordings and helped make them available for streaming
Jordan DePatis did the album cover design.
Laurie Schneider did the photography.
And my wife, my seeing eye dog, my bandmates, my friends and family, and everyone else who supported me, they have my deep appreciation and this album is for them.
A note on how I record:
Each track is essentially a live recording. As a blind person, I have very, very limited ability to edit. So I build each song track by track, re-recording tracks from beginning to end as I need to, until I come up with one that is good enough.
My fellow musicians out there will hear some flaws. This may stand out in this time of digital recording perfection. I’m OK with that. I think this style of recording gives the songs energy and a feel of a live performance. For that’s what it is.