Hackensaw Boys show off string band traditions
Roots music is a many-flavored thing that can include elements of everything from folk and blues to country and string bands. Both the long-running Virginia-based group Hackensaw Boys and not-quite-as-long-running New Orleans outfit The Deslondes each have utilized the various forms of roots music as a foundation for their respective sounds. For Hackensaw Boys, it is the string band traditions of Appalachia and the American South that have formed the base for its spirited sounds and on its new self-title album, that flavor continues to prevail and to winning proportions. Hailing from the Crescent City and while rootsy at its core, The Deslondes have always been a bit more restless spreading the wings into soul of the old school type and rockabilly. On its latest album and first in five years called Ways
& Means, the restlessness rears its head once more on an album that builds on its traditional base with trippy flourishes of psych, synth and strings. One constant across all of the band’s now three albums is a groove delivering records with a comfort factor akin to a backyard jam. The new albums from Hackensaw Boys and The Deslondes occupy this week’s Ear Bliss feature, so let’s dive in.
Hackensaw Boys Hackensaw Boys Free Dirt Records
It has been over 20 years since the Hackensaw Boys formed in Central Virginia in the late 1990s. Renowned for its high energy live shows, the band with its revolving cast of members took the traditional stringband music of its Blue Ridge Mountains stomping grounds to a different level. Call the band a trailblazer what with all the bands who in the time since have popped up with a similar approach to traditional roots music. The constant since the band’s outset has been its founder (and guitarist and lead singer) David Sickmen. Not since the middle of the last decade has the band made an album (Charismo released in 2016) and much transpired in that time. There was the departure of long-time band member Ferd Moyse in 2018 and Sickmen himself having to undergo throat surgery a few years earlier to save his voice. It had Sickmen questioning both his own future and that of the Hackensaw’s. “I realized as a 50-year-old man,” Sickmen says, “I’m too far gone to stop. I’ve waited too long to have another career. I did a lot of soul searching, trying to figure out what Hackensaw Boys even is at this point
with all the people that have come and gone through it.” That soul searching led to a reincarnation of the band and its new self-titled album. The album is indicative of a band in motion with nods to its past and forging some new frontiers in its sound, not to mention the introduction of the next generation into the band via Sickmen’s son Jonah. Tracks like the fast-picking opening track “Things We’re Doing” with its soaring fiddle and the breakdown “Rye Straw” which closes the 11-song album are each trademark Hackensaw Boys while others such as the catchy lead single from the album, “Mary Shelley,” opt for a more polished sound while remaining true to that traditional music base. They are just part of an album as good as any in the Hackensaw Boys catalogue. Visit www. hackensawboys.com.
The Deslondes Ways & Means New West Records
For the latest release from New Orleans-based band The Deslondes called Ways & Means, the band returned to the comforts of the studio of its producer and long-time collaborator Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes). Begun in 2013 as The Deslondes and still featuring original members Dan Cutler, Sam Doores, Riley Downing, Cameron Snyder, and John James Tourville, the band has always been best categorized as a roots act drawing on elements of country, blues and folk. Even with that rootsy foundation, there has always been a restlessness to its music with the 14 songs comprising Ways & Means no exception. Right out of the gates, the maneuvers are many from the trippy psychedelic cloud over opening track “Good to Go” to the synth touches added to the rustic sounds of “Five Year Plan” to the title track with its ska backbeat behind a bed of farfisa and fuzz.
Things dip back into familiar Deslondes territory with the country soul of “South Dakota Wild One” which recounts the early days of making music as a band and features the gravely, but always soulful Riley Downing on lead vocals, before the rootsy “Consider Me” which is a throwback to The Band with its group harmonies and organ. And that is the magic of Ways & Means, the blending of the familiar and the not-so-familiar into a collection of songs that keeps the senses sparked while at the same time hitting the comfort spot. Music is all about making a connection and The Deslondes from the songs to the music to the overall feel of the record do just that on Ways & Means. Says Tourville, “When you hear our music, I hope you feel like you’re hanging out with us.” I’d say mission accomplished. Visit www.deslondes.com.
The Deslondes appear at Atwood’s Tavern in Cambridge on Friday night and at the Oldtone Roots Music Festival in North Hillsdale, NY on Saturday.
LIVE SHOTS:
The big event on the live music front this weekend is the Newport Jazz Festival
happening at Fort Adams State Park in Newport beginning on Friday and continuing through Sunday. At press time, single-day tickets were still available for the event. Check out the web site at newportjazz. org for information. Also in Newport, the Martin Luther King Community Center presents a special music event on Saturday evening featuring the North Carolina-based gospel group Dedicated Men of Zion
(whose fine new album was reviewed in these pages a few weeks ago). This group is the real deal and attendance is highly recommended. Lastly on Aquidneck Island, mark the calendars for next Friday, August 5,
when the Texas-based singer/songwriter Lisa Morales performs at the Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown as part of the Newport Live music series. Moving to South County and thereabouts, it’s “Grateful Friday” at Pump House Music Works in Peace Dale (164 Kingstown Road) on Friday evening with Mystic Dead. Big Boom Daddies bring the bop & rock to the Pump House on Saturday evening. The monthly open mic session closes out things on Sunday starting at 5:30 pm. In Matunuck at
The Ocean Mist, the music of Sublime will be in the air when Badfish takes the Mist stage on Friday evening. Stop Making Sense comes to the Mist on August 5 and 6. The Courthouse Center for the Arts in West Kingston presents the Gary Backstrom Band recreating Frampton Comes Alive! on Saturday evening. Through the Doors performs on August 6. At The Narragansett Café in Jamestown, the
Downcity Band brings the party on Friday night. On Saturday evening it’s The
Smokin’ Toads before The Delta Generators deliver the blues and more on Sunday afternoon at 4 pm. The
Charlestown Rathskeller (489A Old Coach Road, Charlestown) presents Alter Ego on Friday evening. On Saturday evening it is Van Halen tribute band
Diver Down. 60s Explosion finishes the weekend with an afternoon show on Sunday at 4 pm. In Westerly at the Knickerbocker Music Center, it’s a big bill on Friday night with pop band Sporting returning for a hometown date. Also performing will be
Never Coming Home, Sunday Morning, Coma Hole, and locals Naked on Jake. On Saturday evening, it is the blues with Ben Levin and the Erin Harpe Country Blues Duo. Up North, Chan’s Restaurant in Woonsocket (267 Main Street) presents Watermelon Slim & the Workers on Friday night. Through The Doors with special guests Gabe Jolicoeur and Kate Russo perform on Saturday night. The High & Mighty Brass Band brings the brassy funk to the Levitt AMP Woonsocket summer music series in downtown Woonsocket at River Island Park on Friday evening with
Consuelo’s Revenge opening. At Askew in Providence on Sunday night, it’s a terrific bill of Americana with
Session Americana and
Lauren King performing. The Met Café in Pawtucket presents what sounds like a doozy of a show on Saturday night with an all-metal tribute to The Bee Gees with the band Tragedy. Finally, it is another excellent bill at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River on Friday evening with David Bromberg Quintet performing and the great Robbie Fulks opening starting at 8 pm.
Dan Ferguson is a freelance music writer and host of The Boudin Barndance, broadcast Thursday nights from 6 – 9 pm on WRIU-FM 90.3.