Jeff Hanson: Madam Owl

Jeff Hanson's voice is his defining trait, but

listeners who get preoccupied with the ethereal, ladylike falsetto run the risk

of ignoring the "songwriter" part of "singer-songwriter." His third album, Madam

Owl,

doesn't differ much technically from its predecessors, adding flourishes when

necessary and keeping things achingly elegant and simple at other times. From

the stark flugelhorn on "The Hills" to the clucking banjo on "If Only I Knew,"

Hanson knows when to build bigger textures and when to pare back and be more

vulnerable. There are no dramatically building eight-minute songs like there

were on his self-titled sophomore album, but his lyrics, if anything, are more

memorable this time out. "No Never Mine" opens and closes with the stunning

admission, "I've done what I've done / There's no use in trying the right way

now." From the excellent, sweeping opener "Night" to the somber closer "This

Friend Of Mine," a recurring theme on Madam Owl is the persistence of

change, for better and worse. Hanson approaches it with the understanding that

there's value in things that can't be changed—and that accepting those

things at face value can be liberating.