Even though in high school Bob Corbin and Dave Hanner recorded an album on Jubilee Records, it wasn't until their college days that they formed the "rock" band, Gravel, and first became well-known to audiences in the Pennsylvania-Ohio-West Virginia area. Gravel recorded several singles on Columbia Records but the "hit" song eluded them. In the late seventies, Gravel became The Corbin/Hanner Band, changed to a "country-rock" style and released the two albums on Alfa Records between 1980 and 1983. Unfortunately, none of these early releases are currently available in CD form, but some of the songs from that era are included on both the "Live" CD and "By Request".
After a hiatus from 1984 to 1990, Bob and Dave regrouped at the urging of Harold Shedd, then president of Mercury Records in Nashville and became simply Corbin/Hanner. From the two CD's on Mercury Records came several single releases -- "Work Song"; "I Will Stand By You"; and "Just Another Hill" moved onto the country charts and the videos were shown on TNN and CMT. "Work Song" can still be heard every Monday morning on Y108, one of Pittsburgh's country radio stations and several other stations around the country.
The first release on their own Liddl' Red Hen label, "Every Stranger Has A Story" produced the title cut to Kenny Rogers' current CD, "She Rides Wild Horses" and "How Did You Do It" was cut by Don Williams. Corbin/Hanner's versions of "Evil Twin" and "Workin' My Way Down" both got radio play, and "Big Belaire" has become a staple in the Corbin/Hanner repertoire. In early 1999, Bob and Dave put together a CD consisting of 20 songs, almost entirely made up of requests from fans and friends.
In 2002, they released a double CD titled simply "The Corbin/Hanner Band". This CD contains all 40 songs from both Alfa Records releases -- Son of America and For The Sake of the Song, and both Mercury releases -- Black & White Photograph and Just Another Hill.
Their latest release, "Originals" is an all-new recording by Bob and Dave of eleven of their songs which had previously been hits by other artists. For some of these songs, it's the first available Corbin/Hanner version of these hits. "Originals" also includes four new songs, including "Mr. Right Now", a song that's already been recorded by The Povertyneck Hillbillies and getting radio airplay around the country.
