Framing Hanley formed in 2005 in the Nashville, Tennessee area, initially performing under the name Embers Fade. The band initially played a blend of post-grunge and stylish hard rock, with high school friends Chris Vest on drums and Luke McDuffee on bass meeting vocalist Kenneth Nixon upon entering college, while guitarists Brandon Wooten and Tim Huskinson joined the lineup soon after. First formed in 2005 under the name Embers Fade, the band posted some demos of their songs on MySpace. The group renamed itself Framing Hanley in 2007 to honor their late friend Ashley Hanley, who died in a car accident the previous year , and after honing their sound with the help of former Creed bassist Brett Hestla, they built a devoted local following.
The band's breakthrough arrived unexpectedly through a cover song. When one of Framing Hanley's guitarists quit due to health issues, the group brought in a new guitarist named Ryan, and during a rehearsal session Nixon suggested covering Lil Wayne's "Lollipop," which the band quickly reworked into a rock rendition and debuted at a hometown Nashville show, after which fans began requesting it via MySpace. The overwhelming response prompted the band to record and release the song, which shot up the charts and landed at number 33 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, marking Lil Wayne's first appearance on a Billboard rock chart. The track appeared on the re-release of their debut album 'The Moment,' which came out May 15th, 2007 on Silent Majority Group , and the cover eventually went on to earn gold certification. Riding this momentum, the band released their sophomore album 'A Promise To Burn,' on May 27th, 2010 , determined to prove themselves as songwriters beyond the novelty of a cover.
Framing Hanley's career saw steady output and notable lineup evolution over the following years. In June 2008, Tim left the band due to recurring back problems and was replaced by guitarist Ryan Belcher, an arrangement that soon became permanent. The band earned industry recognition, winning Best Modern Rock Band at the Top In Rock Awards in December 2009. They continued to release new music through the following years, including the album The Sum of Who We Are, whose single "Criminal" reached number 22 on the Rock Songs chart in 2014. Founding members departed gradually over the years as the band evolved, with bassist Luke McDuffee, a founding member since 2005, announcing his departure in August 2013 after contributing to albums like The Moment and A Promise to Burn , and founding guitarist Brandon Wootten remaining with the band until 2015, when he exited during the band's hiatus for personal reasons. After stepping away for several years, Framing Hanley returned to active recording and touring. Following a brief hiatus starting in 2015, they returned and continued releasing new material , and by the mid-2020s the band was still writing and performing, releasing singles such as "Start a Fire" in 2023, an original track that signaled their reunion activity, followed by "Hear Me Now Redux" the next year , a reimagined take on their breakthrough song that featured wrestling icon Jeff Hardy on guest vocals . Their most recent single, "Mean It," released in 2025 and produced by Richie Wicander of Fire from the Gods, paired atmospheric guitars with an emotionally charged chorus, with Nixon reflecting that the band remains "therapy for me." Nearly two decades after their formation, Framing Hanley endures as a touchstone of the mid-2000s post-grunge and modern rock scene, remembered as much for their genre-crossing ambition as for the unlikely hit that first put them on the map.
It is fitting that Framing Hanley's energy found its way into this archive. Wayne Dennon photographed the band during one show back in 2009, right around the era when they were touring hard behind their early success and working to prove themselves as more than the band behind a viral cover. That single night resulted in 25 photographs preserved here, images that have since been viewed over twenty thousand times by visitors revisiting this corner of rock history. As with so many bands captured in Wayne's lens, these frames stand as a quiet record of a night when the music was loud, the room was full, and a photographer with a keen eye happened to be there to preserve it.
