It was tough. I was tired. The cold air, while not Boston’s coldest, was biting enough to believe the warmth of my bed could be the better option. In the end, I stepped up, made the first few steps out the door and found myself a couple blocks down the street at T.T. the Bears to see the romantic crooner, Richard Hawley.
Like many Americans, I’m starting to feel the Christmas spirit (after several weeks of resistance from the retailers onslaught starting after Halloween!). So I decided my one beer of choice would be Sam Adam’s Winter Lager. It’s a subtle spice and not overwhelming, which is what I like in my seasonal beers. A hint of cinnamon could be found in the aftertaste.
After a couple of sips and meandering around, I found myself towards the far side of the stage, which is right next to the backstage door. Here, I could spy in on the band to see what kind of craziness they were up to. From my first impression of Richard and company, that craziness probably involved a can of hair gel. Perhaps Dapper Dan.
As soon as they hit the stage I knew they were going to sound larger then the venue would have you believe. With their 50′s greaser looks and weathered appearance, they appeared to us as legends. Kind of ironic that just before I left my apartment, I was watching Roy Orbinson and Friends: A Black & White Night on WGBH (local PBS).
We were immediately treated to a tune off of Lady’s Bridge, “Valentine“, followed up by another new track and one of my favorites, “Roll River Roll“. As we mentioned in the previous Hawley post, most of his songs are about people, places and all things Sheffield, which is where he is from and all of his band members are from except the drummer, he is from Birmingham (and Hawley reminded us that it’s not the Alabama one). Just so happened that a couple of audience members were from Birmingham (U.K.) and that brought on some sort of inside joke where Richard said, “it’s amazing what you can do with six fingers.” No idea what that means. Perhaps people from Birmingham are a little deformed. Gotta love the British humor.
He followed up his new tunes with probably one of his oldest songs in his repertoire. He didn’t give the name of the song but mentioned it was written at age sixteen. It’s no wonder that music is in his family as this song could have easily been written today. Instead of talking about his town, Richard sings about another common theme in his music, love. However, it appeared to not be a happy love song as the main theme was about his “tears sounding like rain drops“.
The next two songs were my set closers and encores, “Lady’s Bridge” and “The Night the Streets Are Ours“. The latter being the single off of Lady’s Bridge and the former one of the best title tracks I’ve heard from any album in a long time. The melody played on the lap steel guitar sends chills through me every time and as I gazed over at Richard while the final melody was strung, I saw a smitten Hawley staring at his band mate / friend, a huge grin stretching across his face. It is clear that Hawley is a man of passion. Every note he plays and every lyric he sings is held very close to his heart and he truly loves doing what he does.
Remaining Tour Dates:
12/06 – Chicago, IL @ The Abbey
12/07 – Minneapolis, MN @ 400 Bar
12/10 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Café
12/12 – San Francisco, CA @ Café du Nord
12/13 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
Listen to Richard on Myspace: www.myspace.com/richardhawley
Watch the video for the single, “Tonight the Streets Are Ours”: YouTube
