Into the landscapes, longings and legends of the wild west comes Frank Hannon with his new album, Reflections.
The influential guitarist and co-founder of the eighties hard rock band TESLA (with hits such as “Modern Day Cowboy”), Hannon is returning to the wild west tradition all through an exclusively instrumental set of guitar-focused songs.
In literal seconds, Reflections plunges the listener into its inspired setting. The opener, “Walk in the Rain,” is as blazing hot as the classic Hollywood westerns it takes clear inspiration from. Opening with some steady rocking rhythms, the track quickly builds a full, reverb-soaked atmosphere that the listener can extract every sonic detail from while Hannon shows off his decades-long playing skills. The quickly descending melodic passages at the end are a strong display of his instrumental talent. Headphones are highly recommended to really get an accurate sense of the song’s tonal quality and immersive nature.
Another atmospheric highlight is “San Francisco.” This track opens with a very cinematic quality. The bass line on its own is somewhat haunting, though Hannon’s added layers of floating electric guitar melodies and heavy, thick walls of acoustic guitar chords take things in a slightly different direction.
“San Francisco” could function as a theme where a western anti-hero is introduced and walks into the town saloon. The track even features a switch-up in the base melody about halfway through, at which point a mandolin is introduced to make for one of the most colorful moments on the whole record.
Although the album is primarily inspired by the wild west, the title Reflections carries a somber, contemplative connotation reflecting the context in which it is releasing. The LP comes after a period of serious grief in Hannon’s life.
Before the creation of the album, Hannon and his family left home for three years to support his father-in-law, none other than guitar legend Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers. Betts, to which multiple songs on the album are in tribute to, passed away after a battle with cancer in April of 2024. Aside from being one of the most influential blues rock guitar players to the masses, he proved to be a personal influence to Hannon as a guitarist. “I feel blessed to have spent the past 24 years learning from him and hearing his stories. I really miss him,” Hannon states.
The album features one lead single in “One More Time” that pulls directly from the style of Betts. It is by far the most blues-influenced song on the whole album. The song pulls its style all the way from the classic blues rock of the fifties that inspired the soul of sixties southern rock. It’s an excellent addition to the sequence of the whole record. The brash, hazy guitar tones it features merge Hannon’s grief with the legacy of blues guitarists like Betts, who did the same with their own trials and tribulations decades ago.
Reflections combination of the blues and western influences culminates on the closing title track. One of the only exclusively acoustic numbers on the whole album, this ending forgoes almost all of the rock influence on the LP in favor of something closer to ambient music. In rough and raggedy acoustic repetition, Hannon closes the LP just by holding space for himself and the listener.
Coming out of hard times, Reflections uses the language of guitar when words aren’t enough. As Hannon said himself, “Play guitar like you’ll never be able to play again. That’s what I did on this album – it’s all from the heart.”
Photo credit: Brandon Gullion
