A native Midwesterner, his songs combine a heartland sensibility and ethos with the finest storytelling traditions of some of Texas' best songwriters. Has a keen eye for life's small ironies and major absurdities, and writes songs about truth and consequences, lies and narrow escapes. True to life, there aren't a lot of winners in Hanners' songs, but most everyone gets out alive in the end, with a few notable exceptions.

His songs are inhabited by people with broken hearts, hapless criminals, women with secrets, men with too many exes and excesses, friends who died young and people who hit the road to see if there's anything out there besides more road. His songs provide the questions, you provide your own answers.