Sons of the San Joaquin
Sons of the San Joaquin is a western harmony or cowboy band from California, founded in 1987 . It consists of the brothers Joe (* 1932) and Jack Hannah (* 1933) as well as Joe's son Lon (* 1956). In their early years the band played mainly songs by the Sons of the Pioneers , but later also their own compositions in the style of Western music .
history
The Hannah family had moved from Missouri to California during the Great Depression, where they settled at the foot of the Sierra Nevada . The band was later named after the San Joaquin River flowing there .
The area there was characterized by many ranches, the entire family was so strongly influenced by the tradition of the cowboys . In addition, Joe and Jack's father was a big fan of the Sons of the Pioneers , so the two got to know and love their songs from an early age. The brothers sang with their families at local events at an early age and also performed together in the local area during their training as high school teachers and baseball coach. Lon also became a teacher and gained experience as a singer in church, in theater performances and as a member of the Bennett Consort, a college group modeled on Manhattan Transfer .
In 1987, Lon first got the idea to sing with his father and uncle at his grandfather's birthday party. The band was discovered when Lon met the cowboy singer Gary McMahan by chance, who invited them to the 1989 Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada , where the band was enthusiastically received. They also met Michael Martin Murphey there, who offered them to accompany him on his first Cowboy Songs album. The occasional appearances became a full-time job, so that Joe and Jack took early retirement in 1992 and Lon gave up his profession in 1993.
The trio's first two albums consisted only of songs by the Sons of the Pioneers. After that they increasingly recorded their own compositions. However, they have always remained true to the classical style, the three-part harmony singing. In contrast to their role models and similar bands such as Riders in the Sky , however, they do without yodelling. Just like them, they don't want to be seen as a country band: "We sing western music, songs which celebrate the life and work and the geographical setting of the American Cowboy."
Numerous television appearances followed, u. a. in the Grand Ole Opry . In November 2006 the band was inducted into the Western Music Hall of Fame by the Western Music Association , and in April 2007 they received a star on the Western Walk of Stars in Newhall, California.