Where's Hanson?

July 8, 1998 may not hold a lot of significance for you unless you had a ticket to a major Tulsa event. A year ago Thursday, the city was vibrating in Hanson hysteria, with the band's first hometown

Tuesday, July 27th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

July 8, 1998 may not hold a lot of significance for you unless you had a ticket to a major Tulsa event. A year ago Thursday, the city was vibrating in Hanson hysteria, with the band's first hometown concert. In case you've wondered what's happened to Isaac, Taylor and Zac since, the News on Six has an update.

On that July day, there was plenty of noise about Hanson. In a week-long build-up, frenzied fans were ready to shower their native sons with love. The band played another Tulsa concert in September, but Hanson talk has pretty much died down since. According to MTV News, the brothers are in an undisclosed L.A. studio, recording a new album for fall release. Meanwhile, there have been some local Hanson sightings. "I know they've been doing a lot of things in the community. I saw them at an NAI basketball game when the tournament was here. They sat there cheering on a team from OBU," said Larry Payton, Celebrity Attractions.

Cheering for Hanson CD's has fallen off at one Tulsa music store, but observers say it's probably temporary. "It's just the general music trend. Once they come out with a new album, everyone's gonna go nuts for that, too," says Pat Devlin, Starship Records.

Cecilia Battaglino and Jayme Sexton were nuts for Hanson this time last year. They screamed through both Tulsa concerts. Jayme's loyalty is still strong, but it's changing, like she is. "It's kinda hard to like them as much as I did, when you can't find out much about them. I can't. I don't know where they live in Tulsa and I'm not planning on stalking them. And when I don't know what's going on in their lives and they don't have much media attention right now, it's kind of hard to follow them," she said. "Well, I'm not as obsessed as I was. I'm kinda goin' down a little bit," said Cecilia. Battaglino, who volunteers as a candy striper, offered her opinion on the question, "Hanson, in or out?" "Not in. Not in. To tell you the truth. I mean, I could be nice and say 'in'," but I'll tell you the truth," she said.

Jayme believes another Tulsa concert will relieve any perceived Hanson apathy. "I mean, there's a whole lot of fans down here who've been fans for a really, really long time and we kind of miss hearing their music and hearing about them. So if they could do another concert, that would be totally awesome. So, if you're listening, go for it," she said.

Who knows? They may be listening to their fans.