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Mad Hannans Movie: Trouble in Paradise by Jay Randy Gordon, The MARINsider
Musicians Jerry (left) and Sean Hannan in their signature hats and exuberance, circa 2012. photo: courtesy Jerry Hannan/Nicole Ryan
FAST LIVING, UNREALIZED ASPIRATIONS,
and untimely death, set against the beautiful backdrop of Marin County, are themes hovering like a persistent fog bank over the new documentary from Martin Shore, "The Mad Hannans”, about two musically-harmonious but sometimes-dueling brothers, Jerry and Sean Hannan (see trailer).
"[Jerry] doesn't know how good he is," noted Jim Reitzel, a childhood buddy, former band mate and album producer, who worked for Wyndham Hill Records and is now at Narada Michael Walden's Tarpan Studios. "He doesn't have an attitude. It's like he's the tip of his own iceberg."
The band sparked a sensation twenty years ago in Marin County, where the brothers grew up, listening to jigs and ballads from the record collection of their Irish-born parents (The Dubliners, The Clancy Brothers, Cat Stevens, etc.).
From 1996 to 2003, they gigged weekly, often multiple times, and became members of the so-called Marin Mafia, featuring actor Sean Penn, The Talking Heads' Jerry Harrison, guitar-god Carlos Santana, Neal Schon from Journey, members of The Grateful Dead and Michael Indelicato, the guitar collector and player, who once owned the iconic Record Plant in Sausalito and is the subject of his own Marin-music doc, “Guitar Man" (2019).
Jerry and Sean thrived on pumping out their Irish- and folk-tinged rock in party-like performances until cult success, the high life and sibling sniping brought about their breakup.
A true artist and musically-driven since youth, Jerry was the workhorse, from starting and front-manning the band to doing the behind-the-scenes work, like getting gigs and breaking down sets.
The Mad Hannans (Jerry on right) were famous for filling a hall with over-the-top performances, circa 1998. photo: courtesy Jerry Hannan/Nicole Ryan
Sean, meanwhile, "was one of the most lovable, kind individuals I've ever known," said Land Wilson, a high school chum, in the film. "He had the biggest heart, and he wasn't afraid to look silly."
Indeed, Sean was the life of the party, joking and laughing but also drinking and drugging, with a dedication entirely absent when it came to humping gear. Naturally, this generated a rift, which played out periodically on stage. Nonetheless, they were brothers.
"I've played with some great drummers, but no one quite played with me like Sean did," Jerry says in the film about his brother, who also sang and wrote. "We grew up together and we're connected."
Thinking they could recapture that “ol' black magic under the white-hot lights,” they regrouped in 2012 to make a short film and record an album—until Sean was diagnosed with cancer.
Despite the amputation of his foot, the cancer turned aggressive and spread. Sean died on March 18, 2013, the day after St. Patrick's Day, which the brothers usually celebrated both as Irish-Americans and by killing on stage, musically. Their final collaboration, however, had already been recorded and partially mixed. Rumored to be titled “Brother”, the album is due this year.
The film project began when Martin Shore, a filmmaker from Santa Monica (originally New Hampshire) with a second home in Marin, decided with Jerry Hannan to do a $50,000 Kickstarter campaign to finance a short film about them as well as the album. A real estate whiz as well as filmmaker, Shore founded Mobile Digital Network and Social Capital, a media company.
Previously, Shore brought us the documentary “Take Me To The River,” the 2014 South-by-Southwest award-winner, which he helped turn into the musical review that is currently touring the country. The film covers American soul music's auspicious emergence out of the talent-laden Memphis, while providing a succinct summary of the ‘60s heyday of legendary soul music labels (see that film's Facebook).
Jerry (right) and Sean with their father, from Martin Shore's film, 'The Mad Hannans', circa 1975. photo: courtesy Jerry Hannan/Nicole Ryan
With the ordeal of Sean's decline, “The Mad Hannans” movie morphed from a short to a beautifully rendered feature. Debuting in October, 2017, at the lauded 40th Mill Valley Film Festival, it was well received and Jerry performed afterwards—the two shows combining to make a great evening.
But thinking about it the following night, as I was watching the MVFF staff pack up the giant, white party tent after the festival's closing night party, I fell into a bit of a funk.
“I’m sad,” I said to fellow Marin-ite Steven Wiig, one of the hardest working character actors in Bay Area film (see cS article). We were sipping our last glass of delicious Stella Artois, the fest's suds sponsor.
“Having seen them play rock 'n roll party music with such energy and passion, the film forces me to confront the sad and tragic," I said. "Maybe this is closure and the start of a next chapter for Jerry?"
“What is closure anyway?” responded Wiig, a Marin Mafia made man and a good friend of Jerry, ever since Wiig's roadie-ing for Metallica days. “Especially here in supposedly-perfect Marin?”
Good question. The dictionary definition is: to end, finish, conclude, or complete; to consolidate, encompass or enclose. I guess I got mine watching the crew strike the set: the closing of the film festival, the end of the Mad Hannans, the passing of Sean.
What inspired me from the film was how Jerry transcended it: reveling in the raucous performances, enjoying close friends and family, or waxing poetic on ecology and friendship—not to forget his revived relationship with Sean.
"[Sean] was beyond heroic when he was sick and suffering,” Jerry says in the film. “He didn't complain. Every time I'd have to help him, he'd apologize. He really took the high road. In the last months he taught me something."
“The tragedy is that we were excited about the Mad Hannans getting back together,” he continued, “We were on really good terms. Everything was super great, and then lightning strikes. It’s a brutal story.”
The Mad Hannans made the cover of the local weekly many times, this one from October, 2017. photo: courtesy J/S Hannan
Marin County also plays a prominent part in the film, from lovely visuals like the Headlands to its typical crazed characters and colorful club scene.
There are shots of the notorious 19 Broadway in Fairfax, West Marin's Rancho Nicasio and both the old and the new Sweetwater in Mill Valley, where Jerry performed after the film debuted, alongside his buddy “Bagel” on drums and Talking Heads' Jerry Harrison.
"It's not just a Marin story," remarked Director Shore, when he went onstage at the MVFF premiere. "It's a bigger story with themes that are huge. Do the things you love before it's too late. Reconciliation. Redemption. These are world themes."
“Sean and Jerry had a chemistry that was one of a kind,” Producer Jim Reitzel said about the film. “Undeniably unique. My wife and I were very impressed and touched by the movie. I felt honored to be part of the story. I thought Martin Shore did a great job of telling a truly compelling story.”
Back in the '90s, Reitzel had taken one listen to a country-ish song about kicking drugs and alcohol, "Clear-Headed," and decided to produce and release The Mad Hannans' debut CD, “Madly In Love With You” (1997). In the movie, we see Reitzel carrying on apace, bringing in top-shelf Marin musicians, like guitarists Lyle Workman, Eric Schramm and Chris Michie, to punch up Hannan songs.
While not in the film, "The Good Life", seems to sum up their musical journey: "Well I once had the good life; As good as life could be; Once had a happy home in ol' Marin Coun-tee; Then a voice came down and opened up my soul; So I threw it all away for rock 'n roll."
Most of us can relate to sibling squabbles, struggling-to-love families, and how alcohol can tear them apart, leading to a sad, rather-Irish tale.
The Mad Hannans throw down. photo: courtesy Jerry Hannan/Nicole Ryan
Shore provides an intimate gander into the Hannans’ footloose and musical childhood, through home movies and recollections, of their mother Josephine and other family, of growing up in the Dominican University neighborhood of San Rafael, in the center of Marin.
Although they had a sizable swimming pool and a backyard track for the miniature cars their auto dealer dad, Jerry, Sr., brought home (he managed the well-known Shamrock Motors), it wasn’t all fun and games.
Jerry, Sr. and Josephine split up when Sean, the youngest, was barely in school. The most adversely affected, Jerry thinks this had something to do with Sean's anger issues, accentuated by alcohol.
As youngsters, Jerry and Sean took violin and accordion lessons, switching to guitar and drums, respectively, in high school (Jerry at Marin Catholic, Sean nearby ILS), and playing in bands. Jerry joined the popular Marin '80s rock band, The Kynd.
After high school, he studied music and business at Dominican University before moving on, just shy of graduation, to Southern California, where he befriended Steve Poltz of the Rugburns, a rising alternative band from San Diego. After two years, however, he found his way back to his beloved Marin.
Emotion and mood seem to define Jerry's music, notably in the album “The Light Gets Brighter”. He has a knack for telling it like it is without being preachy or domineering. Indeed, he’s quite the storyteller in the vein of Canadian Robbie Robertson or Irishman Van Morrison.
That being said, The Mad Hannans unadorned, folk-rock songs are also whimsical or sardonic, in a good-natured way.
His love for drums was infectious: Sean Hannan, in his final recording sessions shortly before he died in 2013. photo: courtesy Jerry Hannan/Nicole Ryan
Although Sean Hannan used to sarcastically refer to Penn as “the other Sean,” Penn became a close friend of Jerry and figures prominently in the film.
On the Sean Penn-directed "Into the Wild" (2007), Jerry tagged along for location filming in Alaska, where wrote the beautiful song, “Society,” plus two more for the film. After Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder, also a friend of Penn, heard “Society", he liked it so much he covered it.
“We were in Cantwell, Alaska, a tiny town along side the highway,” Jerry recalled writing “Society” in an email. "There was a little hotel that was something out of an old western; barely a shack with old wirey, squeaky beds and the wind blowing through the walls. I shared a room with Steven (Wiig) for a few days."
"Traveling to Alaska with Sean and Steven was a field trip for the creative spirit. We were surrounded by beautiful landscape, and a whole lot of nothing else," he added. "We started developing our own private language—based on the humor of our daily living.”
Jerry also acted in Sam Shepard's play, "The Late Henry Moss", at San Francisco's Theatre on the Square, along with Penn, Nick Nolte, Cheech Marin and Woody Harrelson. He appeared as the raucous singer who interrupts a romantic conversation between Harry Connick, Jr. and Sarah Jessica Parker in "Life Without Dick" (2002). He was invited to sit in with Vedder at the Shoreline Amphitheater, in Mountain View, during Neal Young's 2016 Bridge School Benefit.
The Mad Hannans' music will live on not only in the forthcoming album, but through bands like Robert Wheeler and the Wheeler Dealers (Wiig's relative in Minnesota) and others, which are covering tunes like “EGBA (Everything's Gonna Be Alright)”, “The Luxury of Murder” and that perennial show closer “Can't Smoke In Heaven”, inspired by the Hannans' father.
With their classical Mad Hatter look, The Mad Hannans conquered Marin in the mid-'00s. photo courtesy Jerry Hannan/Nicole Ryan
Indeed, Jerry likes to recall one of his father's sayings. "When asked how to live to be one hundred, Dad said, 'Keep your feet warm, and your head cool.'”
"While I may be 50 years young," Jerry told me by email, "I'm 25 at heart... and have a lot left in the tank."
As he says in his song “Society” which really seems to capture Jerry: “We have a greed with which we have agreed. When ya think you have to want more than you need, until you have it all you won’t be free. Society, you're a crazy breed, I hope you’re not lonely without me.”
Jerry hopes the new album and film will do his brother justice and break the Mad Hannans out of Marin, once again, although the earliest upcoming show will probably be a St. Patrick's Day performance at a major Marin County venue. To find out more, check their Kickstarter campaign.
For Director Shore, "We're hoping this is a jumping off point that gives us 'home team' momentum.”