Rhonda Hanson
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Rhonda Hanson is a singer/songwriter who has been living the life of a recluse in the Nashville area for the past 10+ years and who is only recently sticking out a tentative finger to test the wind. She remains "out in the woods" where she has written and published works of fiction and where she continues to pen her lyrics, appearing only rarely in public "for her friends".
Do you play live?
Rhonda always performs live, mainly in coffee houses, clubs, churches, music festivals, etc. Once she pushes past the ever-present initial panic attack, she loves it, slipping beyond her audience into her own secret place from which she delivers her transparent life from behind a microphone. She especially loves and looks forward to the one-on-one interaction with her listeners when the music is over.
How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?
"The internet wrestles a lot of absolute control from the radio/music industry in that it allows the artists creative flow without demanding that all musicians fall into some sort of cookie-cutter pattern. The fastest way to take the life out of music is to clone it and market it to the highest bidder." One of Rhonda's strongest objections to the radio industry is that they tell, rather than ask their listeners what they want to hear. They seem to play the same 15 songs in mind-numbing rotation, a practise which she feels might be effective as a means of torture in prison camps. The internet opens up a whole new realm of untapped music the radio listener might never experience.
Would you sign a record contract with a major label?
Rhonda has no interest in main-line labels, as she presently views them. She would much prefer an independent label that acknowledges the artist's contribution as valid and vital to its success.
Your influences?
Rhonda is most often compared with Stevie Nicks and Bonnie Tyler, although her musical library is made up of artists as diverse as Mark Heard, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Boston, Alice In Chains and Randy Newman. The radio in her library is permanently fixed on the local university's Jazz station and she has been known to unconsciously move to good Blue Grass when she runs across it.
Favorite spot?
"My favorite spot on earth is anywhere I can put a bass boat."
Equipment used:
Rhonda plays piano/keyboards and, as she claims, "pretends to play the guitar".