JOHN HANRAHAN - WHY NOT?
By Brian Sidler
Former Music Writer For Chicago Music Magazine
Drummers are an enigmatic class of players in the world of music. What the audience sees on most occasions is some guy sweating and working his buns off providing the backbone of what all popular music is mainly based on, and that is the rhythm. It is the oldest form of the musical expressions known by us, and it has been here as long as the caveman. It’s primal in all of our beings. We all have an innate sense of it. We’re born that way.
There are many, many great drummers that have come and gone, since the emergence of the subject of this article, John Hanrahan, and even John in his classic humility for his craft, would admit to the same. He’d be the first one to do so. However this speaks well of a man who obviously is amply talented to take his seat next to these other giants that have come before him.
John has been on the circuit now for over twenty years. He has mingled with or shared the stage with an impressive lineup of players like Elvin Jones, Buddy Guy….Lonnie Brooks, Otis Rush, Matt Guitar Murphy from Blues Brothers fame…Derek Trucks from the Allman Brothers Band, Jimmy Johnson, Sugar Blue, Magic Slim, Lefty Dizz, Jon MacDonald, Billy Branch and the Sons of Blues, Carl Weathersby, Carlos Johnson, a famed Chicago Guitarist, The Flaming Lips, along with The Jeff Healey Band.He’s produced several live event shows, been a radio personality and has pretty much run the gambit in the music world, and where drummers are concerned, traveled in territory that most of them would not have even thought to go.
He’s also a hell of a singer and writer, as the song - John’s Teeth - up there in the player would attest.
Mr. Hanrahan can be heard on many CD’s that he recorded with “The Buzz†and several other bands,and we would have to consider that from the beginning, he was an adventurer in the world of the Chicago musical underground having formed a band called Why Not, back in the early part of his career.
John Hanrahan’s chops are second to none and he’s a showman. The way that you can tell a great drummer is the snare snap in the backbeat of a bands sound. So too, John shines like a diamond in this respect. Listen to the song Pablo Casal that he recorded with The Buzz. That snare snap is where this particular arrangement gets its bite. And that bite is what John always brings to any unit he’s in or originating. It’s the mark of a master.
There are some people who understand that drums are a talking instrument unlike any other instrument in a combo. Many people have witnessed what that kind of talking good drumming can do to a concert audience who witnesses it. How many of you can remember the times when you have been in a concert where a band just leaves the stage to the warrior behind the skins under the back spotlights, and watched a cat mesmerize an audience for sometimes as long as twenty minutes and then be brought to your feet because of the sheer energy that you just saw? Bet you couldn’t help but raise yourself up when it happened, right?
Listen to the track called Tribute To Elvin Jones (a life hero of John’s) and see if you can’t find what kind of talking, incredible drumming can really speak to your soul. Listen to the sentences and the paragraphs of expressions that this man emits, while he speaks of his love and admiration for one of the greatest drummers of all time, Elvin Jones.
It’s not an accident that John Hanrahan can do what we call drumspeak. It’s his gift to the world. There’s a whole lot of soul in the blues-jazz influenced, rock drummin’ of this player and it doesn’t come from someone who learned how to play because of practice…this cat was born to it. He’s be compelled to be it. He just can’t help himself and that is what differentiates an artist from an artisan.
John Hanrahan as a rhythm man, is, WHAT IT IS, friends. And just like the unit which is the namesake of this article, we would also have to clue you in to the same question…WHY NOT?
We know for certain, somewhere and sometime in the future, John is going to leave his drumstick mark on the skins in some recording…and that recording will be immortal, for sure.
Someday, some young drummer or drummer wanna-be, is going to wish he could be as good as John Hanrahan…and guess what…he’d be right in his judgement!
John's own words...
Follow Your Bliss-JC........Artist's have to make many sacrifices to continue to create and perform their work. We need your support and understanding to continue sharing our passion with you. Thank you for sharing your passion with us. Playing music(and certainly supporting ourselves financially) has become harder everyday. We can not take musicains/artists for granted! Please make the effort to support local musicians and venues. If you continue to show up, we will always be there for you. The drums are calling us!!
I have been blessed to have played with great musicans......I owe so much to these beautiful and talented souls. Thank you!! (for putting up with me!)...It's been a blast!!!......I'll keep comin' back.......I promise.....Thank you, and may your God bless and keep you always, may all your wishes come true, may you always do for others, and let others do for you.JH
