No Guts, No Gravy shows a depth and variety beyond normal for a freshman effort, which promise to make this record a sure-fire classic as the days go by. It’s Judy Henske and maybe a hint of Muppets, stirred together with care and fierce rebellion. Hanner’s work here is rawer, and perhaps more unpolished than some of the artists she has been compared to: Cat Power, Joanna Newsom, Leonard Cohen. But she imbibes into the songs a litheness of spirit—an attitude of humorous understanding pervades them. It is these qualities that set her apart from the others.
Themes of the songs on the record are many and various. “Birds and Girls” hauntingly depicts the death of a friend, or of a part of a self. “Enemies” is a result of a collision and a dispute: one day a tile fell from a construction site many stories above 53rd St., plummeting straight down onto Hanner’s head where she was sitting on the sidewalk, selling paintings. Aside from giving her a bump, the tile’s collision with her head marked the beginning of an unsavory dispute with a large insurance company, involving some not-too-friendly characters. And so “Enemies” was born. The story-like song “Mount St. Helens” strolls thoughtfully through the brave (or crazy) people (and some pets) that opted to stay where they lived near the famous volcano, despite warnings, and were blasted to their dooms when it erupted in 1980. “Cross Country” chugs along like a well-maintained but elderly Greyhound bus, and describes the view of the United States from the window: “warehouses, backyards, oversized front-loads, lawn chairs and cigarettes – a million folks you don’t know, yet.” “Write my Name” is a ballad of happy surrender, and the hope for and belief in some kind of meaning in life and love.
