Taylor Hanson doesn’t want to give too much away, but when Hanson reconvenes for a mammoth five-night residency at New York City’s Blender Theater at Gramercy (Apr. 26-30), the band is planning a few surprises that will hopefully include some very special guests. Unfortunately, he isn’t about to say who just yet because he doesn’t want to ruin the surprise.
“We want to make this really special for the fans,” Hanson tells PopEater of the shows, which will see the pop-rock band performing a different album from their catalogue in its entirety each night. “We are probably going to have special guests, but we’re saving that for now to keep it a surprise.”
“There are a lot of different people who have been involved in the different albums,” Hanson continues, “and in different ways. For instance, for ‘Underneath’ we worked with Matthew Sweet. We had people like Rose Stone from Sly and the Family Stone, who directed the choir on the second record. We worked with Mark Hudson, who co-wrote ‘Living on the Edge’ with Aerosmith. So, there are these different people who’ve been involved: players, writers, producers, lots of interesting people who have been involved along the way. There’s nothing official yet, but we want to make it special.”
Dubbed ‘Five of Five,’ the engagement begins with a performance of Hanson’s debut, ‘Middle of Nowhere,’ on Apr. 26, and then moves onto 2000’s ‘This Time Around’ on Apr. 27. 2004’s ‘Underneath’ follows on Apr. 28 with 2007’s ‘The Walk’ on Apr. 29. The final night is when the band unveils its new as-yet-untitled studio album. Hanson says an official announcement on the specific release date for that will follow in late January, but he confirms it will be sometime in May. “There’s lots of secrets over here,” he chuckles.