Framing Hanley is an American rock band from Nashville, Tennessee, formed in 2005 by a group of high school friends who initially called themselves Embers Fade before adopting their permanent name in 2006 to honor Ashley Hanley — the drummer's girlfriend and the band's unofficial photographer, who died in a car accident that year. The renaming was a tribute and a statement of identity: Ashley had framed them. The founding lineup of vocalist and songwriter Kenneth Nixon, guitarists Tim Huskinson and Brandon Wooten, bassist Luke McDuffee, and drummer Chris Vest built their early following by grinding through the Nashville club circuit. Their demos were discovered in November 2006 by Brett Hestla, former Creed bassist and frontman of Dark New Day, who recorded a two-song demo in his Florida studio and brought it to label head Jeff Hanson of Silent Majority Group. Hanson said he flipped out upon hearing Hear Me Now. The band signed and recorded their debut album in six weeks.
The Moment was released in 2007, shaped by a post-grunge sound drawing comparisons to 30 Seconds to Mars and 3 Doors Down, and earned support from Sirius Radio alongside strong regional buzz. But it was a spontaneous cover of Lil Wayne's Lollipop — performed as a joke one night in Nashville and recorded when crowds loved it — that became the band's breakthrough. Released as a single in October 2008, the guitar-heavy version logged over a million MySpace plays, became one of the most-downloaded songs of 2009, and was eventually certified Gold. It was also a double-edged sword: the band spent years proving they were more than the band that covered Lil Wayne. Huskinson departed in mid-2008 due to back problems and was replaced by Ryan Belcher, who became a permanent member.
A Promise to Burn (2010) was the band's statement of intent — debuting at number 57 on the Billboard 200 and reaching number 9 on the Alternative Albums chart, their best chart performance. Nixon described the album's theme as what happens when everything is taken from you before you can be humbled. Hear Me Now from the debut and You Stupid Girl and WarZone from the sophomore album all received rock radio play, and the band toured relentlessly — logging 300 shows in a single year at their peak. A third album, The Sum of Who We Are, followed in 2014 before the band announced their breakup via Facebook in April 2015, performing a farewell show in Nashville that August. Nixon and Belcher formed Sumner Roots in the aftermath.
The band reformed in May 2018 with a leaner lineup centered on Nixon, and have continued performing since. The current lineup includes Nixon alongside Jonathan Stoye and Nic Brooks. Their story is one of a band that earned its following through relentless work, navigated the complications of viral success, and produced two albums that hold up as genuine documents of early 2010s alternative rock at its most emotionally direct.
Wayne Dennon photographed Framing Hanley as part of an archive that documented Nashville's rock scene alongside the broader hard rock touring world. The band's combination of big hooks, heavy guitars, and personal lyrics made them exactly the kind of act that drew devoted crowds — and Wayne's images capture the sincerity they brought to every show.
