Framing Hanley comes to Lafayette

• By MICHAEL FARRAR
• Special to 2theadvocate.com
• Published: Oct 2, 2008 - UPDATED: 1:00 p.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Think every band from Nashville sings with a drawl? Better think again, because Framing Hanley is a five-man group with a rock guitar sound and no apologies for upsetting the status quo.

"The (Nashville) rock scene is just as strong as the country scene. There's tons of undiscovered rock bands out of that city that could stand toe-to-toe on stage with any headlining band that's out right now," Framing Hanley's lead singer Kenneth Nixon said.

Nixon can respect his Nashville cowboy compadres, but his heart was hijacked by hard rock long ago.

"If it were not for 'Appetite for Destruction' from Guns N’ Roses when I was a little kid, I would probably be more into country music than rock," Nixon said.

With that said, Framing Hanley doesn't mind crossing musical boundaries and going for the unexpected, like when they recorded a cover version of "Lollipop," the hit by Louisiana rap star Lil' Wayne.

The audience reaction was strong enough for their record company to push "Lollipop" as a Framing Hanley single with plans to release a video for the song as well.

While doing the cover tune was fun, the group shares equally in the songwriting duties of their original songs.

"Someone will have an idea on guitar, or I will have an idea lyrically. We just bring what we have to the full band. We kind of mold it and sculpt it from there. Every song we have is written by the five of us," Nixon said.

Framing Hanley is a band with the combined talents of Nixon (vocals), Ryan Belcher (guitar), Chris Vest (drums), Luke McDuffee (bass) and Brandon Wootten (guitar).

Backtracking a bit to their beginnings, the group's first EP was called "With October Came the Fall," which tested the waters for them. However, their big break came when they were signed to the Silent Majority Group music label in January 2007.

Within six weeks, they had recorded "The Moment," their first full-length CD, which was released in the summer of 2007. Next, came tours with groups including Saving Able, Fair to Midland, Tantric and many others.

"The first tour we ever went on, we were out with the national act Evans Blue. We had never played outside of Tennessee. We [also] went out with Trapt and Fuel. It was really a surreal moment," Nixon said.

They toured so long that they lost their claim to their Nashville rehearsal space. Framing Hanley actually had to go back to their drummer's family garage.