RON HAWKINS MAN OF MANY BANDS
Prolific Toronto singer/songwriter fêtes the release of his new album with five shows and three ‘band’ formations
Ron Hawkins is not lacking for friends to play with.
Over the next few weeks, the beloved Toronto singer/songwriter will mark the release of his new solo album, Spit, Sputter and Sparkle, with no less than five separate local gigs: two with his old bandmates in the Lowest of the Low at Lee’s Palace on Friday and Saturday, then three more at the Rivoli from April 14 to 16, when he will do both the solo-acoustic thing and go all in with another of his on-again/off-again bands, the Do Good Assassins.
In between, he’ll head to the Prairies in support of Spit, Sputter and Sparkle performing as a duo with guitarist Brian MacMillan, who also plays with him in the Do Goods and, lately, Lowest of the Low.
Confused? You should be. The Lowest of the Low will be playing a few of the new Hawkins solo tunes on Friday too, since that’s the day Spit, Sputter and Sparkle officially comes out via Pheromone Recordings. The waters get pretty muddy between the prolific Hawkins’ various projects. But we’ll try to break ’em down for you.
Ron Hawkins, solo Born: 1965 Member of: The Lowest of the Low; the Do Good Assassins; the Rusty Nails Solo albums: Seven Signature sound: Rootsy, wellcrafted rock ’n’ roll with a dash of folk and literate lyrical streak
Hawkins has fronted many bands over the years, but his latest LP is a solo record in the strictest sense of the word: Hawkins played and recorded the whole thing almost entirely by himself in his tiny home studio.
“Ironically, this solo record was supposed to be a Do Good Assassins record and I was kind of demoing for it,” he says. “But it’s a five-piece band and everybody has other commitments . . . so we just wound up in a position where I didn’t have the band members ready in the window of time that I wanted to do it in, so I turned around and said, ‘I’ll just polish the demos.’
“My friends often ‘air quote’ when they refer to my demos because I tend to be a little into it. So all I did when I decided the demos were going to become the record was polish them up.” Listen: “Beautiful Girl” The Lowest of the Low Formed: 1991 Albums: Four Signature sound: Boisterous Cancon pub rock with a wry sense of humour
“Generally, I feel like I don’t really write specifically for any band,” says Hawkins.
Nevertheless, when he wrote “The Kids Are All Wrong,” one of two Low- est of the Low comeback singles released last November, he knew where it had to go. It just intuitively felt like a Low song.
“We’ve always been known for being a little bit loosey-goosey and the wheels can come off live every once in a while, hopefully in a charming way,” chuckles Hawkins, who’s now fronted the Low on and off for 25 years despite the fact the band first broke up in 1994 after just three years and two albums together.
“There’s a kind of ragged energy to it and a certain kind of drive. Not that those kinda rock songs aren’t on the solo record, too, but there’s just a certain way we do it. I know how the boys play. It’s been so long.”
The Low doesn’t have any concrete plans for the future but, as the recent recordings suggest, there might be life in the band after the 2013 departure of co-founder Steve Stanley, after all.
“At this point, I never say ‘never’ about anything with the Low. I never know when it’s going to be happening and I never know when it’s not going to be happening. But everything feels really fantastic again right now in the Low,” Hawkins says. Listen: “The Kids Are All Wrong” The Do Good Assassins Formed: 2011 Albums: Two Signature sound: Stylistically omnivorous, more lavishly instrumented and arranged take on Hawkins’s time-honoured sound
The Do Good Assassins were only meant to be Hawkins’s backing band for a handful of dates around the release of his 2011 solo album Straightjacket Love, but everything clicked so well he wound up recording two albums with them — one of them, 2012’s Rome, a double LP.
“I was just planning to put the band together for a few shows,” he says. “And then it just staggered me. We learned about 30 songs in a week or something like that, and I was amazed at how capable and sophisticated the band was and it reminded me a little bit of the Rusty Nails. I just thought, as a writer: ‘Wow, I could take this band in almost any direction I want to take it.’ ”
Although the Do Goods aren’t officially associated with Spit, Sputter and Sparkle, they’ll join Hawkins for the April album-release shows at the Rivoli along with a horn section, strings and “the whole nine yards.”
“Luckily for me, I’m blessed to be in a situation where I’ve got a lot of people who respect my songwriting and who will jump on board and play,” Hawkins says. Listen: “Kingdom of the Sun”