Hickry Hawkins

“Imagine a long white Cadillac with Hank Williams, Sr. driving, Steve Earle riding shotgun, David Lee Roth in the backseat and the body of Sid Vicious banging around in the trunk!”
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.
The Tour
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.
The Talent
Hick’ry Hawkins sings lead vocals and plays rhythm guitar, backed up by a talented ensemble of musicians. 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
• Unknown Hinson
• Cigar Store Indians
• The Gourds
• Mudhoney
• Cowboy Mouth
• Backsliders
• Whiskeytown
• Hank III
• Fugazi
• GWAR
Discography
Hickry Hawkins’ discography includes 3 full-length albums: Anarky, Tennessee; Unleashed in the Southeast and The Hell I Am. Individual songs are available for download at www.blastmymusic.com.
Contact
For all booking and press inquiries, please contact Hick’ry Hawkins through myspace.
HICK’RY AND YOU - keep sendin’ them in!
PRESS QUOTES
Michael Miller - The State Newspaper - Columbia, SC
“A lot of today’s country singers like to talk about a down-home upbringing, rock ’n’ roll roots, a punk influence and how they bring it all together in some kind of hillbilly hybrid that rocks as much as it twangs. Hick’ry Hawkins doesn’t talk about it or think about it. Hell, he probably doesn’t even care about it. He just knows that Hank Sr. was a punk rocker before there was such a thing, and Sid Vicious was more of a country outlaw than any Nashville hat act will ever by. Hick’ry has a way of channeling those attitudes into a music that slams away like a barstool tossed against a roadhouse wall.
Visitnc.com – October 2007
“If your taste tends toward old-time country and rockabilly, catch local act the Hick’ry Hawkins Band.”
ETV Presents “Juke Joints and Honky Tonk Legends: A Southern Musical Celebration” – March 26, 2007
(Program aired on “Carolina Stories” on PBS on June 7th at 9pm)
“This program is an excursion into a larger-than-life culture with roots that trace back to traditional African and folk music. It explores this nonconformist genre and the people who seek to preserve it. From the famed Chitlin’ Circuit to Tobacco Roads to the bluegrass Kerosene Circuit, viewers will tap into the stories of local artists such as blues master Drink Small, Bill Wells, owner of Bill’s Pickin’ Parlor in West Columbia, and honky tonk’s resident pied piper Hick’ry Hawkins.”
BILLBOARD MAGAZINE - January 11, 2003
South Carolina hellbilly Hick’ry Hawkins is kicking up some dust with an ornery brand of hard-twang country loaded with attitude. Hawkins moans with pride on "Country Guitar Pickin’ Man" and his "Holy Ghost Conductor" combines Cash-style shuffle with gospel sensibilities. The title cut is reverb-drenched rock with a mean streak, and "Dentures on the Dash" is a heartfelt tribute to a certain kind of, uh, lady. Elsewhere, "Waylon" is a surprisingly touching and well-played nod to Mr. Jennings, and "I Sold My Soul and Ain’t Got Paid" and "I Was Just One" are weepers in the Bakersfield style. Hawkins has a beer-soaked sense of humor, "Up Them Stairs" promotes the glories of "ladies first" and "Just Cut a Big One in Nashville" clears the air on his opinion of Music City. Musicianship is mostly solid and sometimes great, if production is at times muddy, but this guy definitely has something more going on than just a novelty act. –RW
Yes Weekly (Greensboro, NC) – Brian Clarey, Editor
“Ink and dirt rise to the surface at Heavy Rebel Weekend” 7/10/07
“….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.”