Corbin/Hanner (US country music group)

Corbin/Hanner, previously known as the Corbin/Hanner Band, was an American country music act from Ford City, Pennsylvania. The founding members were Bob Corbin and Dave Hanner, both songwriters, vocalists, and guitarists. They founded the Corbin/Hanner Band with Al Snyder (keyboards), Kip Paxton (bass guitar), and Dave Freeland (drums). The quintet released two albums for Alfa Records before disbanding in 1984. Corbin and Hanner reunited in 1989 as a duo, recording two more albums for Mercury Records, followed by releases on their own Liddl' Red Hen label. The duo retired from performing in 2014, and Corbin died in 2023. Counting both the original and duo lineups, Corbin/Hanner charted eleven singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts including "Livin' the Good Life" and "Everyone Knows I'm Yours", which achieved their highest peaks of number 46. Their music is defined by both members' singing and songwriting, Hanner's lead guitar work, and country rock influences. Some of their songs, such as "Work Song", draw lyrical influence from the members' upbringing in the Pittsburgh area. Both Corbin and Hanner wrote singles for Don Williams, with Corbin also having done so for Alabama and Mel Tillis. Singer-songwriters Bob Corbin (April 9, 1951-September 18, 2023) and Dave Hanner (born February 22, 1949) were raised in Ford City, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. The two began writing songs together after they met in school, having been inspired by the performances of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. Corbin and Hanner's first musical project was a British Invasion-themed group called the Lost Lambs, which was briefly signed with Jubilee Records in the mid-1960s. After this act was unsuccessful, both Corbin and Hanner put their musical careers on hiatus to attend college. Hanner attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Corbin attended the former Alderson Broaddus University. Afterward, the two founded a country rock band called Gravel, which played a number of local gigs in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Gravel was offered a contract with Columbia Records in the late 1970s, but according to Corbin, they turned it down because the label wanted to make the act a soft rock group similar to Bread. Corbin's wife, Edana, was working as a freelance writer when she got an opportunity to interview Mel Tillis for the former Country Style magazine. During the interview, she mentioned her husband's songwriting, and Tillis asked her to send him some of Corbin's songs. This led to Tillis signing both Corbin and Hanner to a songwriting contract with his publishing company Sabal, in addition to recording Corbin's composition "Blind in Love" and releasing it as a single. The success of this song led to Corbin and Hanner being discovered by producer Tommy West, who then signed him to his independent label, Lifesong Records. Credited to Corbin & Hanner, their Lifesong release "America's Sweetheart" peaked at number 85 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles (now Hot Country Songs) charts in early 1979. Despite the failure of their Lifesong single, both Corbin and Hanner remained active as songwriters in the early 1980s through their contract with Tillis. Hanner wrote the Oak Ridge Boys's late-1980 single "Beautiful You" and Don Williams's "Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good", a number-one country hit in 1981. The success of these cuts led to the two songwriters signing to Alfa Records in 1981 as the Corbin/Hanner Band. Also in the band were Al Snyder (keyboards), Kip Paxton (bass guitar), and Dave Freeland (drums), the latter two of whom had also been members of Gravel. According to Snyder, Corbin and Hanner were initially slated to sign to Alfa as a duo when they asked him to record a piano solo for a song they had already recorded with session musicians in Nashville, Tennessee. Snyder, who owned a music studio, chose to re-record five songs they had already completed for Alfa with him, Paxton, and Freeland instead. When executives of the label thought the re-recorded versions sounded better than those done with session musicians, they chose to sign all five members as a band. Their first Alfa album, For the Sake of the Song, came out that same year. It included the singles "Time Has Treated You Well" and "Livin' the Good Life", both of which made the Billboard country music charts after release. The latter would become the act's highest-charting single on Billboard, with a peak of number 46. West produced the album, and both Corbin and Hanner wrote several songs on it. Jack Hurst reviewed the album favorably for The Houston Chronicle, praising the songwriting and vocal harmony in particular. Due to the success of their songwriting cuts with Tillis, Williams, and the Oak Ridge Boys, the band began touring as an opening act for those artists as well. A second Alfa album, Son of America, followed in February 1982. As with their previous album, Tommy West served as producer. They promoted this album through an opening act gig with Merle Haggard, as well as an appearance on the syndicated television series Pop! Goes the Country. Three singles charted from the project: "Oklahoma Crude", "Everyone Knows I'm Yours", and "One Fine Morning". Of these, "Everyone Knows I'm Yours" also peaked at 46 on the Billboard country charts, tying for their highest peak there. In addition to these, the album included their own rendition of "Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good". Hurst found the album "less memorable" than its predecessor, but still praised the band's harmonies and musicianship. Shortly after the album's release, Alfa Records closed, leaving the group without a contract. They performed locally before disbanding in 1984. Corbin later recalled in 1990 that a "legal situation" prevented the musicians from recording further music or signing with another label, so they chose to break up. Despite the breakup, both continued to write songs. Corbin wrote "(There's A) Fire in the Night" and "Can't Keep a Good Man Down", both of which were number-one hit singles for Alabama in the middle of the decade. Williams also had a top-ten hit with Corbin's "I'll Never Be in Love Again", as did Tillis with "In the Middle of the Night", which featured both Corbin and Hanner on backing vocals. The two also supported themselves financially by composing jingles for radio and television commercials. In 1987, both Corbin and Hanner performed in a songwriters' showcase held by Mel Tillis and his publishing company in downtown Nashville. Other participants included John D. Loudermilk and Danny Dill. Corbin stated in 1990 that the breakup of the band had led to rumors that he and Hanner had separated acrimoniously, although he noted that the two remained friends after the breakup and would occasionally sing or play on each other's jingle work whenever it was possible. At the end of the 1980s, producer and music executive Harold Shedd had become president of Mercury Records's Nashville division. As he was a fan of their music, he contacted the two in March 1989 and asked them to reunite as a duo and sign with the label. Renaming themselves as Corbin/Hanner, they signed with Mercury Nashville in 1989. That same year, the Oak Ridge Boys had a hit single with "An American Family", a song written by Corbin. After signing with Mercury, Corbin/Hanner released the studio album Black and White Photograph in 1990. Black and White Photograph accounted for two singles on the Billboard country music charts in "Work Song" and "Concrete Cowboy", both written by Corbin. They had previously recorded "Work Song" as a demo when they attempted to sign to Columbia Records in the 1970s, and again for Alfa in the 1980s. Prior to its inclusion the Mercury album, Pake McEntire had also recorded the song. "Work Song" was also the act's first music video. "One More Night" was the album's third single. Shedd also assisted the duo in producing the album, which consisted of five songs written by Corbin and five by