I wrote pieces of this song from the mid- to late-1990s. Kevin and I recorded it at Stryker Studios in Danville, Virginia, in 2005, but we never made it past this stage. (Totally my fault!)
The music sounds good, but the mix is rough—no backing vocals and little to no vocal mixing. Still, it brings back so many memories and makes me wish I could go back and handle things a lot differently.
Vocals: Jo Hawke
Guitar: Kevin Hawke
Keyboards: Kirk (Glenwood) Smith
Bass: Mark Earp
Drums: Jere Stryker
We had an awesome time Friday night at “The Existors” – Live at “2 Witches Winery & Brewing”! Stuart Jennings, Bob Tamson, Donnie Fitzgerald, and Craig Beatty sounded great!
We enjoyed hanging out with Kevin’s Averett University family: Bruce & Tammi Devlin, Peggy & Don Aungst, Christy & Chris Mayes… We saw so many people we hadn’t seen in so long: Dolly Jennings, Liz Hoskins, Carole Hylton, Kathy & Fred Shanks, Deana Barbour Lacks, Chuck Adams, Glenwood Smith & Donna, Walter Ygoh, Jason Crowder, Michael Crowder… (Sorry if I left anyone out!!!)
Although we didn’t go with the intention of playing any music ourselves, *someone* is just extremely persuasive and we ended up playing a couple of songs. ☺️ Thanks to Tammi Devlin for the videos!!!!
1- Are the Good Times Really Over for Good
2- Moondance
This is a Christmas song I recorded with Eddie Cochran, Steve Edmunds, and Carlos Morales years ago. We called ourselves Fryed Chickin. It’s a good time to remember. 🎄 🎅 ✨
I pulled up Apple Music in the first few minutes of sitting in the Cookout drive-thru a little while ago. [It’s date night for Kevin and me. That means that we get the kids takeout (kids’ choice) and then we eat (almost always takeout, also) after the kids go to bed.]
Paul McCartney’s new Album, McCartney III, was on the main page of Apple Music, so I decided to listen. Lucas said he’d already listened to it when it was released last week and really liked a couple of songs (“Deep Deep Feeling” and “Slidin'”).
The first song (“Long Tailed Winter Bird”) got my attention really fast. It’s got an interesting kind-of-tribal beat with a lot of repetition (but in a good way) and cool guitar riffs.
Although the drive-thru was slam-packed, as usual, I still haven’t listened to the whole album yet. My favorite song so far, though, is “Deep Deep Feeling.” Sweet harmonies and cool piano chords.
Paul McCartney tweeted yesterday that he was going for an “empty spacey mood,” so, yeah, that probably explains why I love it. :D
Deep Deep Feeling was from a kind of jam that I had done, I’d wanted to get in a particular mood, a very sort of empty spacey mood, so I just made up stuff so it was just a combination of ideas that became an 8 minute song #TimsTwitterListeningParty #McCartneyIII
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) December 21, 2020
Here’s the video:
K. Hawke, S. Hopkins, J. Rising – 2002 Hopkins Studio Recordings
Kevin’s 2002 recordings at his cousin Shawn Hopkins’ Danville basement studio.
The first track is 200 Days, which Kevin (lead vocals & rhythm guitar) wrote with Shawn (drums & keyboard) and Jody Rising (lead guitar & backup vocals). The second track is Johnny L.V., which features only Kevin on vocals & guitar.
I wish there were pictures of the recording or at least a picture of the three of them together… back in the pre-cell days.
We uploaded this video to YouTube back in December, but for some reason it never got posted here.
Written in 2002, “Music Man” may be Kevin’s biggest hit. It’s a beautiful song of grief over a lost loved one and the friends and fans who make it all okay.
Kevin says he often has people asking him whether it’s about his own life. In fact, he wrote it about his uncle Roy Norton, himself a popular local musician, just after Roy had recently lost his mother and suffered an accident at work.
Copyright © Kevin Hawke – Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Alternating sets with Glenwood Smith
Our 1st Set
1) Funny How Time Slips Away
2) Natural Woman
3) Highgate Shuffle/Baby, What You Want Me to Do
4) Every Day (Jo Song #1)
5) Willin’
6) Helpless
7) Love, Please Come Home
8) On The Verge
9) Every Picture (They Say You)
10) All Around the World
11) Desperado
12) Working Man Blues
13) Summertime
14) Sitting on Top of the World
Our 2nd Set
1) Ready For Love
2) Son of a Preacher Man
3) 200 Days
4) Shoot For The Moon
5) Stormy Monday
6) Shooting Star
7) Danglin’
8) My Little Girl
9) Me and Bobby McGee
10) Moondance (with Glenwood Smith)
11) You Can Close Your Eyes
12) Why Can’t You See (a Glenwood Smith original, with Glenwood Smith)
Thanks to everybody who came to see us!
Now that the Bistro is going to instrumental music for the inside season, we need a new place to play. We really want to keep this once-a-month thing going!!!
Alternating sets with Mike and Kristie Strange :)
The week before last, my brother Paul and his family were in town from near Tulsa, OK, for the first time in five years or more. Getting to spend time with them was great for all of us. All of our kids have grown up so much, and our younger sons were so young back then that they barely remembered it.
Paul’s older son Caleb, who’ll be 16 in September, has been singing like crazy in school choir, musicals, and talent shows. He and his mom Rebecca came to see Kevin and me sing at Frank’s that Saturday. (See picture above.) When we were hanging out at my parents’ house the next day, we begged Kevin to get his guitar and play some music.
So while we talked and laughed and worked that crazy Virginia puzzle with Caleb’s younger brother Sammy, Kevin played and talked Caleb into singing with us. Caleb’s an Eagles fan, so Kevin tried to find a couple of songs that he knew (though he’d never played them before) and that Caleb was familiar with. We tried to record it, but it disappeared from my phone. GAH!
The next day, we got him to do it again, so we could get a decent recording. I used the H2 recorder, but something happened evidently, because it recorded at a very low volume. I’ve been using that thing for years and have never had this problem. Thankfully, I was able to boost the levels without too much loss in Audacity. It’s still a little bit too low, but you can definitely hear how good Caleb is. :)
We recorded three songs. I’m ready to post the first two today:
Take It to the Limit (Eagles cover):
Desperado (Eagles cover):
I’ll post the third song ASAP!
