Hick'ry Hawkins Band

Artist Information

Biography

Somebody will have to shoot Hick’ry Hawkins before he’ll ever stop playin’! With a sound most often compared to Dwight Yoakam, Jason and the Scorchers, The Cramps and Jay Hawkins, The Hick’ry Hawkins Band unites fans of Honky Tonk, Country and Punk Rock, delivering a dynamic, highly-acclaimed catalog of both humorous and heart-wrenching songs with a Southern draw that consistently packs the crowds into venues across the Carolinas. Their distinctive, hip-shaking Rockabilly sound combines a deeply-rooted Country tradition with a hard-edged Punk mentality, explaining why lead singer Hick’ry Hawkins was named “the David Lee Roth of Country music” by the Knoxville Sentinel. Singing songs about hard times, whiskey and women; reflecting on winning and losing at the game of love; and respecting the strong influence of great Country icons like Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and Steve Earle; veteran musician Hick’ry Hawkins has naturally hollered, strummed and crooned his way to the top of today’s Honky Tonk music circuit.

Hick’ry Hawkins sings lead vocals and plays rhythm guitar, backed up by a talented ensemble of musicians which varies from show to show. Hick’ry has shared the stage with an impressive variety of both regionally and nationally recognized talent, including:Southern Culture on The Skids, Robbie Fulks, David Allan Coe, Two Dollar Pistols, Cowboy Mouth, Backsliders, Whiskeytown, Hank III, Cigar Store Indians, The Gourds, Mudhoney, and GWAR.

Based out of Charlotte, NC, singer/songwriter Hick’ry Hawkins has toured heavily across the Southeastern U.S. for the past 10 years with both his current line-up and his former backing band, Sidemeat. He has played at many venues prominent in today’s music circuit, including: Smith's Old Bar (Atlanta), Tremont Music Hall (Charlotte), The Milestone (Charlotte), The Millenium Center (Winston-Salem), The Garage (Winston-Salem), The Boathouse (Norfolk), Broadways (Asheville), Art Bar (Columbia), The Jinx (Savannah).

Instrumentation

Hick’ry Hawkins - songwriter, lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Badger - bass/stand-up bass
Electric guitar - Various artists depending on the region
Drums - Various artists depending on the region

Discography

Hickry Hawkins’ discography includes 3 full-length albums: Anarky, Tennessee; Unleashed in the Southeast and The Hell I Am. Individual song downloads can be found at www.blastmymusic.com.

Audio

• The Hell I Am
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• Waylon
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• Hard Times (Live)
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Lyrics

• The Hell I Am
• Waylon
• Hard Times

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• The Revelator: Hick'ry Hawkins has a Vision for Charlotte Music's Future [+ Show ]
  

  "Hick'ry Hawkins is the real deal. His show oozes Country-Western authenticity and Outlaw-Bakersfie..."Hick'ry Hawkins is the real deal. His show oozes Country-Western authenticity and Outlaw-Bakersfield swagger. Whether performing his own songs or covering Dwight, Johnny, Hank, and Buck, Hawkins infuses each performance with a touch of true twang, some heartfelt emotion, and a bit of an edge."

• Ink and dirt rise to the surface at Heavy Rebel Weekend - by Brian Clarey [+ Show ]
  

  At 3 a.m. in the 14th floor of the Marriott, a man named Hick'ry Hawkins uncases his burled wood gui...At 3 a.m. in the 14th floor of the Marriott, a man named Hick'ry Hawkins uncases his burled wood guitar. He's wearing weathered cowboy boots, a belt buckle as big as a plate, a pristine white cowboy hat and a Captain America tattoo on his shoulder.
  
  And Hick'ry Hawkins begins to play his guitar for an audience of six, seated on beds and chairs in this hotel room. The tune: "I Want You to Want Me." Yeah, that's right - he's pulling out some Cheap Trick, imbuing it with a touch of the trailer park with slow strums and a beautiful rasp to his voice that carries into the next number, "Surrender."
  
  "Your mama's all right/ your daddy's all right/ they just seem a little weird/ surrender...."
  
  It goes on like this: "Dead Flowers," "Born in the USA," "Pink Houses," "Every Rose Has its Thorn."
  
  He plays an original, something more congruous with the hat and boots that makes reference to rattlesnake eyes, the devil's right hand, the tree of original sin.
  
  Is it country? Rock? Folk? A blues-style boast? And why do I have to put a name to it anyway?
  
  And there in the hotel room as the morning sun starts to lighten the sky I have this epiphany.
  
  It's about the music and the attitude and the style, how it's all connected in the most fundamental of ways, how one man and one guitar can evoke feelings of pride, giddiness, sorrow and lust in a hotel room in the early morning just as a trio can rock a stage in a basement and turn the room on its ear. It's all part of the same thing, or so it seems to me at dawn on the 14th floor of the Marriott.
  
  And then Hick'ry Hawkins tunes his guitar for one more number before we all turn it in. He plays the opening chords of "This Land is Your Land," sings the first verse with his eyes closed and his soul laid bare. And the six of us sitting on beds and hotel-grade furniture snap from our reverie. We get it together, one by one, and by the time he hits the first chorus, we're all singing along.
  
  To comment on this story e-mail Brian Clarey at editor@yesweekly.com.
  

• Soundtrack Songs - Television [+ Show ]
  

  March 2007 - PBS documentary on South Carolina serial killer Pee Wee Gaskins. Featured Song: "The...March 2007 - PBS documentary on South Carolina serial killer Pee Wee Gaskins.
  
  Featured Song: "The Hell I Am"

• Soundtrack Songs - Film
  

  "Hellblock 13" - a Crimson/Millman Production. Featured Songs: "I Will" and "Alligator Britches"

• Soundtrack Songs - Film [+ Show ]
  

  "Head Cheerleader Dead Cheerleader" - Milmann Productions (2000) Featured song: "Born in the Side..."Head Cheerleader Dead Cheerleader" - Milmann Productions (2000)
  
  Featured song: "Born in the Sideshow"

• Sounds Familiar - Otis R. Taylor [+ Show ]
  

  We wanted to get some professional help in rating the field, so we turned to Hick’ry Hawkins — who p...We wanted to get some professional help in rating the field, so we turned to Hick’ry Hawkins — who probably won’t ever be honored during “country music’s biggest night,” because his hard-drinkin’ honky-tonk music kicks up too much dust.
  
  "If I could get rid of any soul, I’d be a millionaire in Nashville. I know the formula,” says Hawkins, a former Columbia resident who now lives in Charlotte. “I just can’t bring myself to do it.”
  
  Hawkins will return to Columbia Dec. 14 for a show at New Brookland Tavern. Meanwhile, here’s what he has to say about this year’s CMAs.
  

• Finding Comfort in Company [+ Show ]
  

  Hick'ry Hawkins plays music in Columbia, S.C., bars. Too bad more people haven't heard of him. On...Hick'ry Hawkins plays music in Columbia, S.C., bars. Too bad more people haven't heard of him.
  
  One of The Hickster's biggest fans is Sammy Fretwell, a friend of mine who works as a reporter for The State, the newspaper in that vibrant little city.
  
  He told me about Hick'ry and
  I told him about Leon.
  
  Hawkins, who mostly sings what he writes, comes out of the country tradition. Therefore, he has not got what's hot on the radio these days.
  
  For example, he sings:
  
  Hard liquor, fried chicken and you/Is the only thing I got left in this world/I can look forward to.
  
  As I said, when Sammy isn't serving as a self-appointed and unpaid promoter of Hick'ry Hawkins, he writes for the local newspaper.
  
  

• Come Get Some - Jason Griscom [+ Show ]
  

  "There are many people doing the right thing, right now. I can't tell you how happy I am to see the ..."There are many people doing the right thing, right now. I can't tell you how happy I am to see the Milestone up and running and sounding better than it ever has. The Neighborhood Theatre is booking some great acts as well. There are some great bands in Charlotte right now: Dead Kings, Antiseen, Gideon Smith (he's got some weirdo named Jason who made a zombie movie playing guitar with him now), Volatile Baby, Hickry Hawkins, and the list goes on and on."

• Going Mobile [+ Show ]
  

  Hick'ry Hawkins, who was born in Charleston but didn't stay there long, grew up in a mobile home -- ...Hick'ry Hawkins, who was born in Charleston but didn't stay there long, grew up in a mobile home -- several, actually. "I thought it was great. Everything is simple. You can't get lost. Sometimes your neighbors are a little scary, but you just stay on their good side."
  
  Hawkins says mobile home parks are stratified, just like the larger world. "Usually, way at the back or to the side were the ratty trailers," he says. "And usually at the entrance were the nice ones. And always -- every place I ever lived -- had a trailer park queen or king. They lived in the biggest, widest, gaudiest trailer. At Christmas their place would be like a Wonderland."
  
  You could always tell who they were, he says; "They carried themselves like royalty." He even wrote a song about these redneck bluebloods, called "The Widest Trailer in the Lot."
  
  Hawkins, 27, sings in a band that plays a blend of "old-time country, punk and lounge." He loves Elvis, and dreams of being a rock star himself one day. When he makes it big he's going to do it up right. "I want a Silverstream home in the desert with a satellite dish."
  
  Hawkins, a big believer in different strokes, knows trailers are not for everyone. He just wishes people who don't live in them would stop feeling superior to people who do. Everyone is on a different path, he says, and for some people that trip doesn't include slaving to make mortgage payments.
  
  "When you finally do get that house," he says, "usually you can't enjoy it because you're working your ass off to pay for it. It all depends on what you want out of life."
  
  You might expect a guy named Hick'ry Hawkins to live in a trailer park, even if it isn't his real name, which it isn't. But other people don't seem to belong there. Poets, for instance.
  

• Subliminal Messages [+ Show ]
  

  Email from April 26, 1999... "Get a load of this... I just got the new Hick'ry Hawkins CD in t...Email from April 26, 1999...
  
  "Get a load of this...
  
  I just got the new Hick'ry Hawkins CD in the mail. It smelss like diapers. Not dirty diapers (thank god) but clean diapers. I'm sure of this because I'm *very* familiar with the smell.
  
  So, what exactly should I read into this? Are they dipping their raw CDs in some diaper smelling agent? Is this some sort of subliminal message?
  
  And what about those other CDs that smell like Maple Syrup? Anyone noticed that? Are they supposed to exude a wholesome family feel?
  
  Asking the hard-hitting questions, just like TV...
  Steve"

Setlist

Unless noted, all songs are original.

1. Boy Named Sue (Johnny Cash)
2. Holy Ghost Conductor
3. Guitar Man
4. Redheaded Rockabilly Girl
5. Saturday Night
6. The Hell I Am
7. Dead Flowers (Rolling Stones)
8. Goodnight John
9. Hard Times
10. Haleys Comet (Leon Russell)
11. Rasslin
12. I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash)
13. Hard Likker
14. Widest Trailer in the Lot
15. I'm Evil (Elvis Presley)
16. Hillbilly Hollywood
17. Waylon
18. Ain't no Sin
19. Up them Stairs
20. Turn That Jukebox Up
21. NYC
22. Devil Train
23. I was Just One
24. Lost Highway (Hank Williams Sr.)
25. My Name is Hick'ry Hawkins
26. Panty Song

Basic Requirements

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