With “Beautiful Goodbye,” her irresistible leadoff single, and its accompanying video, Hanson has certainly found her voice, hitting the country music scene right between the ears with a song that has everyone in and out of the business talking. One of those head-turning, breath-of-fresh-air singles that seems to come out of nowhere, “Beautiful Goodbye” only hints at the musical riches contained on Hanson’s stunning, self-titled debut album. By any standard, Jennifer Hanson is a country album of uncommon depth and variety. As the album’s co-producer and chief songwriter, Hanson bursts out of the country music gate as an artist with an attitude, a vision, and a voice to be reckoned with, and the freshest sound to hit the airwaves in a long, long time.

“I grew up in a predominantly Hispanic area, and I was the only white girl on the street,” Hanson says. “There were gangs and domestic violence and stuff like that. As a kid I was exposed to a lot of things that children in a more sheltered environment wouldn’t have seen, but all those experiences shaped who I am. We didn’t have a whole lot, but music was always at the center of my family and the focus of what we did.”

Hanson’s parents (Larry and Melody) met when both were performing in a Southern California cover band back in the ‘70s, and the music they played, from Fleetwood Mac to Steely Dan to the Eagles to the Doobie Brothers, served as the soundtrack of their daughter’s early life. When she was seven years old, Hanson’s world was turned upside down when her parents divorced and her father accepted a gig as road guitarist for the Righteous Brothers.

“It was a devastating time for me, and my mom took it pretty hard, but music was always my refuge,” Hanson says. “It was always the thing that I felt I excelled in and that I was recognized for growing up.”

In fact, Hanson gained her first serious onstage experience in 2nd grade, singing Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” in front of the entire school accompanied on guitar by none other than her father. Her performance of that country/pop smash was as portentous as it was precocious. Before long her dad would leave the Righteous Brothers and relocate to Nashville to play with the group Alabama, a career move that would have a profound effect on the direction of his daughter’s life and music. In addition to the work of singers like Parton, Emmylou Harris and Patsy Cline, Hanson was exposed for the first time to the town that would become her home and to the one-of-a-kind musical community that would become her inspiration and creative base of operations.

“My dad made the move to Nashville in 1987, and I started coming to town in the early ‘90s,” Hanson says. “We’d circulate around and try to meet people, trying to find songs and get my voice down on tape. I was a young teenager and this was before LeAnn Rimes, so Nashville considered me too young.”

In retrospect, Hanson realizes she was far from ready back then, but those early forays into Nashville’s creative community ignited her passion for country music and served as a constant, sometimes painful, reminder of how much she had to learn and how much work there was to be done.

“When I first got to town, I was young and impressionable and I didn’t know what it was I wanted to sing about,” Hanson says. “I realized quickly that in order to be an artist I had to find my place, my niche, and find out what makes me different.”

Over the next several years, Hanson would find the answer to those questions, and find herself, through her songwriting. She moved to Music City full time in 1995 and wasted no time getting started.

“Some of the best advice my father gave me was, if I really want to be in country music and learn to write songs, I needed to move here,” Hanson says.

With a new hometown and her nose to the musical grindstone, Hanson learned to play guitar and made her first tentative forays into Nashville’s songwriting community. Three years and countless songwriting sessions later, Hanson signed a publishing deal with Acuff Rose.

“Writing was huge for me,” Hanson says. “Until I started writing songs and digging down deep, I was really lost. Songwriting helped me mold and shape who I am as an artist, which is why I felt it was so important on this record that most of the songs be songs I have written. They’re a reflection of who I am.”

Meticulous in their detailing of love’s ups and downs and unflinching in their refusal to look away from life’s complexities, the songs on Jennifer Hanson reflect every influence and every bump and turn in the winding road that led to this auspicious debut. Where the young singer was once intimidated by her own eclectic musical background, on Jennifer Hanson all of her influences become tools in a vocal arsenal that gleefully runs the musical and emotional gamut. On uptempo workouts like “Just One of Those Days” and “Half a Heart Tattoo,” Hanson’s take-no-prisoners commitment to every line echoes great singers from Ronstadt to Raitt, and when she lays back into the candlelit elegance of a sultry ballad like “This Far Gone,” Patsy Cline springs to mind.

“I learned to sing by listening to those artists,” Hanson says. “That’s the way I liked spending my time. I used to lock myself in my room with my records and just sing along.”

Some things never change. Hanson is still doing exactly what she likes to do. Since signing that first publishing deal back in ’98, she went on to a major label development deal in 2000. When that arrangement didn’t pan out, she was courted by Capitol, came to audition for the label, and knew she was home.

“This place felt right from the moment I walked in, and I owe Mike Dungan a lot, not only for signing me but for letting me record my own songs and do it my way,” she says. “My dad always said surround yourself with good people, and this has been a total team effort right from the start.”

Maybe it’s those important music business lessons she learned from her parents, maybe it’s just her God-given talent, but Jennifer Hanson has a knack for hooking up with the right people. In 1997, she met songwriter Mark Nesler, the man behind such country hits as Tim McGraw’s “Just To See You Smile” and Daryl Worley’s “I Miss My Friend.” The couple fell in love and were married soon thereafter.

“Mark has truly raised the bar for me as a songwriter, and he has made me strive to write better songs,” Hanson says. “He is such a big part of what I do and he’s influenced me so much. I’m making music because I love to make music, and I married a man who is the same way.”

In finding her creative self without losing her sense of joy in the music, her sense of balance in a shaky business, or her sense of wonder at how it all came to pass, Jennifer Hanson emerges as a fully developed artist and one of country music’s most compelling new voices.

“I know that being an artist and making music is a lifelong journey,” Hanson says. “So whatever happens, I’ll be here writing and singing these songs and being a part of the Nashville community because that’s what fills my soul, that’s who I am.”