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Hammered & Hewn — And Never Satisfied
Guess I’m gonna have to take Friday, July 12 off and just sit on the swing and listen to music. Two of my favorite artists are releasing new albums on that date:
There’s something about the West, the American Frontier, that demands at some point that an artist just send it and go full epic. Just ask Kevin Costner (#Horizon). Andrew Wills, Frontier Partisan kindred spirit, has caught the fever. Hawken Horse is going BIG. Here’s the caper:
With three full-length records, an EP, and multiple singles behind him it was time for Hawken Horse to raise the bar. And he is doing just that via the upcoming double-album entitled Hammered & Hewn. The project is made up of two volumes and covers the frontier spirit, stories and folklore from 1786 through 1886.
The first volume will release digitally on July 12, followed by two singles before the entire second volume drops on Oct 11. For those unwilling to wait there will be double-album CDs available beginning July 12.
“Today’s world is run by the algorithm. So in order to feed the beast I need to release the project slowly,” Andrew Wills explains. “It’ll probably be easily to digest that way anyway.”
The record includes 28 new songs about Crockett, Carson, Hickok, Billy the Kid, John Colter and Jedidiah Smith. With the project Wills hopes to bring more attention to the history of America and garner more interest into muzzleloading and the pursuit of adventure.
“I want to chronicle some of the lesser known tales of America history in a palatable format.”
Consider this a smoke signal — we’ll have much more on this release as the big date approaches. Meanwhile, propitiate the Almighty Algorithm, won’t you?
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Early in 1986, I was driving somewhere in Santa Cruz, California, in my ’73 Chevy Impala with the radio up loud (as it always was) and I heard the chunky strum of a G chord played on a Gibson J-200. The song was Guitar Town by a new artist named Steve Earle — and my musical world was changed.
This wasn’t actually the first time I’d heard Steve Earle’s name. Two years before, I’d pulled Waylon Jennings album Will The Wolf Survive off the turntable to look at the writer’s credit on a song that just blew me right out of my boots. It was The Devil’s Right Hand, and the writer was Steve Earle. So, when he broke out as an artist, I already knew he was one of my people. And over the past decades, Steve Earle remains the songwriter who has had the biggest impact on me.
A lot of years and miles since then, and more than a few Steve Earle shows. I’ve seen seen some blow-your-face-right-off-your-head rock shows, and an acoustic band show in a small Portland club that remains etched in my memory 29 years later. But my favorite was a solo acoustic show at the Tower Theater in Bend, where Marilyn and Ceili joined me. So, an acoustic live album, well… that’s most welcome.
On July 12, we’ll get Alone Again… Live. Here’s the caper.
“So, October before last I woke up without a band. I had toured with one version of the ‘Dukes’ or another since 1982, but the real continuous bloodline of the outfit died with my longtime bass player, Kelly Looney, in 2019. So, it seemed I’d come to a crossroads. Left? Right? I chose BACK. Back to performing solo like I did in coffeehouses when I first started.”
And it leads off with the song that first introduced me to Steve Earle when I was 18 years old…
- The Devil’s Right Hand
- My Old Friend The Blues
- Someday
- Guitar Town
- I Ain’t Ever Satisfied
- Now She’s Gone
- Goodbye
- Sparkle and Shine
- South Nashville Blues
- CCKMP
- Transcendental Blues
- It’s About Blood
- Dominick St.
- The Galway Girl
- Copperhead Road