The Nouveaux Honkies

The Nouveaux Honkies imaginative originals are well-conceived interpretations of blues and R&B classics. They have a matchless sound and perform a blistering show with their futuristic approach to music that nevertheless retains an authentic American style. With fluid guitar work, reverent vocals and a haunting violin, this deep rhythm section is a discovery of the year. The Nouveaux Honkies represent the Blues Alliance of the Treasure Coast. Caption text and photo by Dusty Scott. - Modernguitars.com

The Nouveaux Honkies are hardly your average retro-blues practitioners. With eye-popping tattoos running up and down her arms, violinist and vocalist Rebecca Dawkins commands attention with her bowing virtuosity and versatility, whether she's tearing into a Chicago blues classic or some Bob Wills-style Texas swing. Equally adept is guitarist and vocalist Tim O'Donnell whose nimble picking and tonal vocabulary can summon up the likes of Jimmy Rogers or Otis Rush. Add the fine rhythm section of bassist Ben Laing and drummer Phil Ori, and you get a fun and frisky, jukebox rocking experience. Check out their most recent recording, "Where Do I Go" which consist of entirely original material. BW - Hot House Mag

The whole band looks great! Rebecca is adorable and a joy to watch. She makes me smile-her smile is contagious. I love the sound of the big hollow-body guitar-and the bass. The violin was a refreshing touch and is used very well in the context of the overall band sound. Very nice guitar playing. Anybody that can nail a Howlin' Wolf groove like they do will always get my approval. True to the roots, but with a fresh, original approach-nice! Good vocals, drums, bass and violin, too! Great stage presences. - blues-wax mag.(Don "T-Bone" Erickson)

When Blues found Tim O'Donnell the meeting didn't go exactly as expected. "I started learning about it and realized how contemporary blues artist had taken so much from earlier blues artist," said the singer and guitarist. "In the teens and 20's blues was always around and it had a lot of violin, banjo, mandolin and whatever people had around. The West Caost stuff was geared around dance music which was swing - the guitar didn't come into prominence, as a lead instrument until then." Its this retro approach that O'Donnell has applied to his band, which doesn't play 12 barre blues, with its interminable solos. Nor is it mournful acoustic delta or country blues. There's a bit of Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks in there, a touch of Lonnie Johnson. Thats because violinist Rebecca Dawkins is the lead player although O'Donnell and the other members swing into solos as well. "I think we give it a little twist," said Dawkins, a South Carolina native who relocated to to the treasure coast 3 years ago. "We try to authentically play the blues and I think we put on a good show." Dawkins had played classical and rock violin before she met O'Donnell who is something of a blues historian. "I always loved this music but really didn't know much about it until Tim started talking to me," she said. "A lot of times you'll come to one of our shows and I haven't even heard some of the music we are playing." The 33-year old O'Donnell has lived on the Treasure coast most of his life, Played drums for many years in blues and gospel groups. He's always loved the blues, too, but until he hooked up with Dawkins was unsure about channeling his idea. "Part of it is the art form - we have a personal vendetta to preserve this music," O'Donnell said laughing. "Its like there's a painting on the wall. You want to spray something on it so it doesn't go away." - Bill DeYoung / Stuart News

Seven Year Old Series Emerges From Hiatus??WOLFEBORO, NEW HAMPSHIRE - Wolfeboro Folk is returning with a scheduled concert on Saturday, August 29, 2009, with the blues, swing, and rockabilly band, The Nouveaux Honkies. The concert will be held at the Wolfeboro Inn and offer an optional pre-concert dinner and full bar service.??Founded in 2003, the award-winning Wolfeboro Folk Concert Series has been on hiatus since last Fall. Since its inception, the series has introduced several acts including the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Carolina Chocolate Drops, presented acts like Odetta, Richie Havens, Richard Thompson, and Natalie MacMaster. Gold and Platinum album artist Bruce Cockburn recorded his 2008 Wolfeboro Folk concert at Moody Mountain Farm and released it worldwide as his most recent album, Slice O Life.??"The Nouveaux Honkies were in New England and we just couldn't pass by a chance to put them on the stage." says Wolfeboro Folk organizer, Ben Anderson, "The series has been on a break for a variety of factors, but this band had us pull the series out of hiatus and get things back up and running. They are that fantastic."??Originating from a small commercial fishing town, the Honkies started playing in a tiny café on Saturday nights. Their combination of blues, swing and early country soon swallowed the local crowd and this quartet exploded out of the gate recording two albums and leaving a trail of old tonk-style shows from Florida to the Northwest. The Nouveaux Honkies have a matchless sound and perform a blistering show with fluid guitar work, reverent vocals and a haunting violin.??From intimate shows to major festivals, the Honkies consistently leave a trail of honkified public with their tight unique sound and blistering infectious show. The band can't be duplicated and brings a sound reminiscent of a time when rock was on its first date with roll. It's an authentic approach to historic music that doesn't replicate but is highly respectful, obviously thankful, and undeniably original.??"The Honkies have been the discovery of the year for audiences across the country." said Anderson, "They've just hit the national festival scene and are making incredible waves."??Concert tickets are $25 in advance and available through www.wolfeborofolk.com and by phone (603) 522-8697. - NH Insider

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The great state of Florida has its own blues roots; an imaginative blues interpretation that has both the flair of northern swing and the tonkiness of the south. It makes for a unique sound difficult to describe without using the words; THE… NOUVEAUX… and… HONKIES. Hailing from the tiny Port Salerno, a commercial fishing town south of Port St. Lucie. The Nouveaux Honkies have stormed on the blues music scene and since 2006 have recorded two albums, and blazed a trail of high energy shows that have left the south buzzing.
And that show, usually billed simply as blues, explodes with powerful vocals, blistering guitars and a violin that frequently leaves jaws on the floor. The Nouveaux Honkies is not your typical blues band. They are musical mayhem concealed by a smooth delivery. They are tattoos under an evening dress. They are a bandwagoned sound what will leave you cheering and speechless at the same time.
Cebo Campbell - See Panama City Beach SeePCB.com

Seven Year Old Series Emerges From Hiatus??WOLFEBORO, NEW HAMPSHIRE - Wolfeboro Folk is returning with a scheduled concert on Saturday, August 29, 2009, with the blues, swing, and rockabilly band, The Nouveaux Honkies. The concert will be held at the Wolfeboro Inn and offer an optional pre-concert dinner and full bar service.??Founded in 2003, the award-winning Wolfeboro Folk Concert Series has been on hiatus since last Fall. Since its inception, the series has introduced several acts including the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Carolina Chocolate Drops, presented acts like Odetta, Richie Havens, Richard Thompson, and Natalie MacMaster. Gold and Platinum album artist Bruce Cockburn recorded his 2008 Wolfeboro Folk concert at Moody Mountain Farm and released it worldwide as his most recent album, Slice O Life.??"The Nouveaux Honkies were in New England and we just couldn't pass by a chance to put them on the stage." says Wolfeboro Folk organizer, Ben Anderson, "The series has been on a break for a variety of factors, but this band had us pull the series out of hiatus and get things back up and running. They are that fantastic."??Originating from a small commercial fishing town, the Honkies started playing in a tiny café on Saturday nights. Their combination of blues, swing and early country soon swallowed the local crowd and this quartet exploded out of the gate recording two albums and leaving a trail of old tonk-style shows from Florida to the Northwest. The Nouveaux Honkies have a matchless sound and perform a blistering show with fluid guitar work, reverent vocals and a haunting violin.??From intimate shows to major festivals, the Honkies consistently leave a trail of honkified public with their tight unique sound and blistering infectious show. The band can't be duplicated and brings a sound reminiscent of a time when rock was on its first date with roll. It's an authentic approach to historic music that doesn't replicate but is highly respectful, obviously thankful, and undeniably original.??"The Honkies have been the discovery of the year for audiences across the country." said Anderson, "They've just hit the national festival scene and are making incredible waves."??Concert tickets are $25 in advance and available through www.wolfeborofolk.com and by phone (603) 522-8697. - NH Insider

By Michael McCord
August 27, 2009 2:00 AM
If the musical rallying cry in the 1970s was to spread the funk, the Florida-based band The Nouveaux Honkies have their own quest for the early 21st century — let's play the honk and the tonk.
"It's music the way it was meant to be," said co-founder Tim O'Donnell about the band's musical collage they call "Americana" that incorporates blues, country, Western swing, folk, rock, jazz and, well, anything else that moves them.
"From the beginning we tended not to do Top 40, which hurt in finding jobs but we found our voice."
The Nouveaux Honkies, who are scheduled to make their first visit to Portsmouth at the Prescott Park Arts Festival on Saturday, Aug. 29, have risen quickly from their current incarnation in 2006 to recording three albums, having more than 200 tour dates across the country and becoming a presence at blues and roots festivals in the south and Northwest. They are now in the middle of their first tour of the Northeast and New England, which includes gigs in New York, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
The band originally started as a duo with guitarist and vocalist Donnell and violinist Rebecca Dawkins, who migrated from her native South Carolina to the Atlantic Coast fishing town of Port Salerno where they first began to collaborate. The band includes bassist Ben Laing and drummer Phil Ori, a former New Hampshire resident known for his eclectic resume of rock, jazz and country.
O'Donnell said the organic growth of the band and its popularity came as a surprise. Influenced by the blues tradition of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and T-Walker, by 2001 O'Donnell took a break from the music business after working as a session player and with numerous bands (including a "punk rock folkie" group and a gospel band out of Atlanta). He founded a business with his dad until the hurricane season of 2004 destroyed it and left O'Donnell in need of work.
O'Donnell said the break was what he needed. He discovered a greater appreciation for playing authentic music and dealing with the often chaotic business side of an unforgiving industry.
From Dawkins, who was a classically trained musician, O'Donnell said he learned more about the arranging songs, a complement to his improvisational style. Their songs are relatively short and to the point. "We like to get in and get out," he said.

The collaboration of the entire band has brought out the best of all their talents, O'Donnell said, and the result has been a burst of musical energy that shows up on the concert stage and in the recording studio with their 2008 CD "Where Do I Go" and their just released "Live at Sun."
"For our concerts we get really charged up to bring energy and have a good time," he said. "We have a good time when we play and I think you can see it with our audiences where there will be five-year-old kids dancing with their grandparents."
O'Donnell admits traveling to various festivals around the country has opened the eyes of the band leading to a few moments of intimidation — "there's a lot of talent out there and we wonder 'what are we doing here?'" he said — and a greater injection of inspiration.
"Live at Sun" was homage to a bygone era when artists would rent studio time and quickly lay down tracks. While in Memphis for a blues and roots festival, The Nouveaux Honkies recorded the album at the famous Sun Studios — where among others, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash did the same thing.
"It's much more than a studio album," O'Donnell said. "I wanted to be a man and go for it like Elvis and Johnny Cash." The goal was "to bridge the gap" between studio recordings and live performances.
"We are all working well together and have, I think, two to three albums' worth of material," he said.
O'Donnell said the group's popularity has grown mostly through word-of-mouth by loyal fans and impressed music promoters. Ben Anderson of the Prescott Park Arts Festival said he was contacted by a Florida music promoter who saw the Nouveaux Honkies play and strongly suggested Anderson book them for Portsmouth.
"We meet the most amazing people on the road," O'Donnell said. "You never know who's watching." (Find out more about The Nouveaux Honkies at www.tnhband.com.) - Seacoast Online

The Nouveaux Honkies focus on carving a niche with unique, well conceived interpretations of blues and R&B classics on their eponymous self-release. Tim O'Donnell's vocals are hip but reverent enough to be authentic; his imaginative, fluid guitar work posseses a wicked vibrato. Frank Cramblitt (bass) and Phil Ori (drums) provide a deep, sensitive rhythm section, but the band's secret weapon is Rebecca Dawkins, whose violin adds a haunting voice to the arrangments without overpowering them. Howlin Wolf's "Evil" Eddie Vincent's "Kidney Stew" and Little Willie John's "All Around the World" are played straight, while T-Bone Walker's "Two Bones and a Pick" gets a popping drum figure, and Albert King's "Your Gonna Need Me" is funked up. Jimmy McCracklin's "She Felt Too Good" is detoured through New Orleans, and Ray Charles' "Losing Hand" emerges from a voodoo lounge. There's a lot to like. - Blues Review Magazine

By Michael McCord
August 27, 2009 2:00 AM
If the musical rallying cry in the 1970s was to spread the funk, the Florida-based band The Nouveaux Honkies have their own quest for the early 21st century — let's play the honk and the tonk.
"It's music the way it was meant to be," said co-founder Tim O'Donnell about the band's musical collage they call "Americana" that incorporates blues, country, Western swing, folk, rock, jazz and, well, anything else that moves them.
"From the beginning we tended not to do Top 40, which hurt in finding jobs but we found our voice."
The Nouveaux Honkies, who are scheduled to make their first visit to Portsmouth at the Prescott Park Arts Festival on Saturday, Aug. 29, have risen quickly from their current incarnation in 2006 to recording three albums, having more than 200 tour dates across the country and becoming a presence at blues and roots festivals in the south and Northwest. They are now in the middle of their first tour of the Northeast and New England, which includes gigs in New York, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
The band originally started as a duo with guitarist and vocalist Donnell and violinist Rebecca Dawkins, who migrated from her native South Carolina to the Atlantic Coast fishing town of Port Salerno where they first began to collaborate. The band includes bassist Ben Laing and drummer Phil Ori, a former New Hampshire resident known for his eclectic resume of rock, jazz and country.
O'Donnell said the organic growth of the band and its popularity came as a surprise. Influenced by the blues tradition of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and T-Walker, by 2001 O'Donnell took a break from the music business after working as a session player and with numerous bands (including a "punk rock folkie" group and a gospel band out of Atlanta). He founded a business with his dad until the hurricane season of 2004 destroyed it and left O'Donnell in need of work.
O'Donnell said the break was what he needed. He discovered a greater appreciation for playing authentic music and dealing with the often chaotic business side of an unforgiving industry.
From Dawkins, who was a classically trained musician, O'Donnell said he learned more about the arranging songs, a complement to his improvisational style. Their songs are relatively short and to the point. "We like to get in and get out," he said.

The collaboration of the entire band has brought out the best of all their talents, O'Donnell said, and the result has been a burst of musical energy that shows up on the concert stage and in the recording studio with their 2008 CD "Where Do I Go" and their just released "Live at Sun."
"For our concerts we get really charged up to bring energy and have a good time," he said. "We have a good time when we play and I think you can see it with our audiences where there will be five-year-old kids dancing with their grandparents."
O'Donnell admits traveling to various festivals around the country has opened the eyes of the band leading to a few moments of intimidation — "there's a lot of talent out there and we wonder 'what are we doing here?'" he said — and a greater injection of inspiration.
"Live at Sun" was homage to a bygone era when artists would rent studio time and quickly lay down tracks. While in Memphis for a blues and roots festival, The Nouveaux Honkies recorded the album at the famous Sun Studios — where among others, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash did the same thing.
"It's much more than a studio album," O'Donnell said. "I wanted to be a man and go for it like Elvis and Johnny Cash." The goal was "to bridge the gap" between studio recordings and live performances.
"We are all working well together and have, I think, two to three albums' worth of material," he said.
O'Donnell said the group's popularity has grown mostly through word-of-mouth by loyal fans and impressed music promoters. Ben Anderson of the Prescott Park Arts Festival said he was contacted by a Florida music promoter who saw the Nouveaux Honkies play and strongly suggested Anderson book them for Portsmouth.
"We meet the most amazing people on the road," O'Donnell said. "You never know who's watching." (Find out more about The Nouveaux Honkies at www.tnhband.com.) - Seacoast Online