Hi there!

We’re Jo and Kevin Hawke. We’re from southern Virginia but are now living in Tulsa.

Here are some other things about us:

• We’re BFF!! No, really. ;)
• We’re both Protestant-raised and Catholic-converted.
• We have three boys: Ryan, 30; Lucas, 19; and Atticus, 17.
• After 20+ years of teaching high school English, I worked as a K-12 EL specialist (basically, ESL teacher) and earned my PhD in literacy. After 14 years of working as a correctional officer and case manager at a NC prison, Kevin now manages the maintenance and security of our local Catholic church.
• We have two awesome cats named Parker, a Tortoiseshell Maine Coon, and Elliot, a Sewer Squirrel Cat™. <3
• Kevin has a Bad Company tattoo (plus 20-odd others, including a bright green Hulk on his upper right arm and a dragon on his back… shhh). I have tattoos in my dreams sometimes, mostly fireflies and butterflies, but probably never in real life.
• I love word games and puzzles, reading, Spanish, learning, and most things Internet. Kevin loves the rosary, his scapular, and Elvis.

Music!

Kevin and I both started playing with bands before we were teenagers. Both were bluegrass bands. And both included the same mandolin player, John Hines. :P

Kevin started playing guitar with his renowned banjo-playing father, Ryland Hawker, when he was about thirteen. Around the same time, he won first place in the Youth Vocalist category at the Virginia Folk Music Festival. He has shared the stage with world-class musicians like Ronnie Bowman and The Lost and Found, the Osborne Brothers, Ralph Stanley, the Virginia Squires, Larry Sparks, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Dave Evans, David Holt, and the Country Gentlemen with Charlie Waller.

I first sang in church when I was about ten, and then sang with my first band — a local bluegrass group called Westfork — when I was eleven. A few years later, I sang with a contemporary Christian band called Stainless. When I was eighteen, I joined my first rock band, Dreams, with Wayne Adams, Mike Brown, Barry Crane and Mark Earp. Through the years, I’ve been able to “open up” for a number of notable bands, including .38 Special, Steppenwolf, The Guess Who, and The Marshall Tucker Band — all with the Flaming Blue Iguanas, a band which I sang with in several incarnations: Mike Strange, Kristie Moore (now Strange), John Stoffel, Jerry Wade, Jeff Jackson, Todd Pinekenstein, Alan Rowe, Morgan Rowe (formerly Pinekenstein) and William Gunnell. And in 2001, I sang at the New York City Hard Rock Cafe with Fryed Chickin, a band headed by Eddie Cochran which also included Carlos Morales, who performed, wrote, and toured with Julian Lennon in earlier years. We also recorded much of the “Born in a Barn” CD at Flat Five Studio in Salem, Va.

These days, our musical endeavors are fewer and further between.

[We have played since this. I need to update! – Jo] Since our last official “gig” (New Year’s Eve 2004 at the now-defunct Purple Onion in our hometown, Danville, Virginia, with Mike and Kristie Strange, who were also in the Flaming Blue Iguanas), the most we play is around the kitchen table … when we can find the time and energy … Kevin will pull out a guitar while I’m “working” on the computer. Some days, we’ll play through our repertoire; others, we’ll work on new songs we want to learn; and still others, we’ll work on new collaborations. Sometimes, we get the kids involved. Other times, we play after they’re in bed.

We’ve played for the squirrels and the homeless in Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, NYC, one afternoon every late July for the last few years. (And one year, we even made a dollar!!!) We played at a cookout after our Confirmation into the Catholic church last June. And we played at a funeral recently. We’ve recorded other people’s music here and there. And Kevin and his dad play every few months or so. A few times, they’ve put on a show in my parents’ basement.

But mostly we play at home when we play. For now, anyway. ;)

Heard Around Hawke Haven

(2014)

• Atticus: The road is covered in snow; it’s like it’s in disguise. (Singing) My name is Snow; my name is Snow; I used to be Road, but now my name is Snow.
• Atticus: That tree is like an umbrella for the bushes.

(2012)

• Lucas: Hey, Attie, I just cut your head off.
  Kevin: Lucas, you really shouldn’t be cutting your brother’s head off.
  Atticus: He’s not cutting my head off. He’s not doing it for real.
  Kevin: That’s comforting.
• Atticus: My brain is indivisible. It tells me everything.

~Jo