Blues Music Award-Winning Band, The Nighthawks, Display
Their Versatility on New CD, All You Gotta Do, Coming July 21 on
EllerSoul Records
WASHINGTON, DC – Legendary blues and roots band (and Blues
Music Award winners) The Nighthawks, announce a July 21 release date for their
new CD,
All You Gotta Do.
The band is also enjoying critical acclaim for Michael
Streissguth’s award-winning documentary film about their history, The
Nighthawks – On the Blue Highway, which is now available on DVD from
the group’s website, as well as Amazon.com. The film will also be screened
prior to the ‘Hawks’ June 30 performance at the Creative Alliance at the
Patterson in Baltimore.
Eclectic? All over the map? The material on All You
Gotta Do, The Nighthawks’ latest release, can certainly be described in
these terms. Yet, throughout the nearly five decades of its career, the band
has sourced songs from everywhere and anywhere. The prototype recording, Rock
and Roll, although it had no originals, established this template in
1974. Three years later, Sidepocket Shot, showed the band capable
of nearly all original material and spanning an even wider range of genres, this
time in an array of production styles a la the
Beatles' Revolver. All You Gotta Do does not have
any outside players, only the band itself, with a minimum of overdubs. Yet
the band still sounds like a hard Chicago Blues band from the mid-1950s, adding the vocal harmonies that Miss Honey Piazza once
dubbed “the Doo Wop Blues.”
The new disc opens with Mark Wenner's rocking version of
Brenda Lee's title track, the kind of pop rockabilly that was in full swing at
the end of the ‘50s. Mark Stutso proceeds to give a moving interpretation
of Levon Helm's personal farewell, “When I Go Away.” Wenner follows with the
always mandatory Muddy Waters song, with no attempt to be anything other than
the Chicago Blues.
Randy Newman's “Burn Down the Cornfield” was learned by the
band for a D.C.
multi-band performance of his songs for band house gigs. Johnny Castle steps
into the fray with “Another Day” that can only be described as a modern day
protest piece from his own pen, and Stutso follows with his own tale of the tortures of love with “Voo
Doo Doll.” Wenner gives a thumping take on the Sonny Boy Williamson rocker,
“Ninety Nine,” using the big C 12 hole Marine Band harmonica honking in the
lower register. The heart-wrenching ballad, “Three Times Your Fool,” gleaned
from his solo CD and written with his Pittsburgh collaborator, Norman Nardini,
is sung as only Mark Stutso can.
Mark Wenner got a chance to sit in on Jesse Winchester's
"Isn't That So" at a casual jam. Remembering almost all the lyrics,
he tried singing it. At the next Hawks' sound check, the
harmonies fell right into place and it became a part of the repertoire. The band takes a fun romp of R.L. Burnside's “Snake Drive,” changing the groove from Hill Country
Mississippi to D.C. Go Go, followed by a funny take on “Frere Jacques,” titled
“Blues for Brother John.” This melody is one that Wenner uses to teach
precise note bending in cross harp position. The final track shows off
Johnny Castle, for all the styles he has played, to be the true King of Garage
Rock in his salute to Washington D.C. on “Dirty Water.”
Although he sings no lead, Paul Bell is a major voice in
the harmonies and shows off his ability to function freely in any of style of
picking, from the snazzy jazzy licks on “Brother John” to the screaming slide
on “Cornfield.”
But before we take any of this too seriously, in the famous
words of Hound Dog Taylor, “Let's have some fun!”
Nighthawks
Tour Itinerary
6/23
Tally Ho
Theater
Leesburg, VA
6/24
Rommel
Harley-Davidson
Annapolis, MD
6/30
Creative Alliance at the Patterson
Baltimore, MD
7/1
Abingdon July Festival (w/Bob
Margolin)
Abingdon, VA
7/7
New York State Blues Festival (w/Bob Margolin)
Syracuse, NY
7/8
Black Rock Performing Arts
Center
Germantown, MD
7/21
Bright Box
Theater
Winchester, VA
7/26
Lee District
Nights
Alexandria, VA
7/28
Jilly’s Music
Room
Akron, OH
7/29
Rip Rap Roadhouse Festival (w/James Solberg)
Dayton, OH
8/4
Hiawatha River
Cruise
Williamsport, PA
8/5
Gotta Swing Dance/Spanish
Ballroom
Glen Echo, MD
8/11
Jammin’
Java
Vienna, VA
8/12
Apple Mountain Motorcycle Rally
(w/Foghat) Little
Orleans, MD
8/19
Rollin’ on the
River
Keokuk, IA
8/25
TGIF
Concerts
Wheaton, MD
8/26
Old Glory
Harley-Davidson
Laurel, MD
8/27
Verdun Adventure
Bound
Rixeyville, VA
9/2
Blue Note Grille (w/Rev. Billy C.
Wirtz)
Durham, NC
9/16
Niagara Falls Blues
Festival
Niagara Falls, NY
Additional dates forthcoming ….
