Jeff Hanson Dies In Apparent Accident

Jeff Hanson, the 31-year-old singer-songwriter signed to the influential Kill Rock Stars label, was found dead in his house in St Paul, Minnesota yesterday. The local newspaper, the Star-Tribune is reporting that he "likely died from a fall or other accident."

Originally from Milwaukee, Hanson had lived in Minnesota for many years but had just recently moved into a new house in the Twin City.

Compared to former label-mate Elliott Smith, Hanson was uniquely known across much of America because of his haunting falsetto voice that was often mistaken for that of a woman. Hanson was signed to Kill Rock Stars in 2003, believed to be the first artist signed to the label based on an unsolicited demo. He often joked that the only reason Kill Rock Stars wanted to meet with him was because they wanted to see if he really sang like that.

He released three albums: "Son" in 2003,  a self-titled record in 2005 and his most recent, "Madam Owl," in August of 2008.

Kill Rock Stars put out the following statement: "Jeff Hanson was an amazing artist, a riotously funny person, and a good friend. Everyone at Kill Rock Stars feels that we were privileged to put out his records. We will miss him tremendously. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time".

Amen to that.