The Hackensaw Boys 'Love What You Do' album

There are lots of mountains in the world but few are older or wiser than the Blue Ridge of Virginia. An hour’s drive west from the state capital, foothills cradle the small city of Charlottesville where generations of workers, artists and students have built a progressive community steeped in the best traditions of the American South.

The Hackensaw Boys first began playing their joyful blend of old-time tinged music on the streets of Charlottesville in the autumn of 1999. Far from limiting themselves to the old-time canon, however, the Hackensaws have been first and foremost a band of songwriters. Their music, while drawing upon the spirit of the mountains, is sophisticated and informed by the best elements of punk rock and classic country music. As one reviewer put it: “Imagine the Carter Family meets the Ramones, and you begin to get the picture.”

Their newest album Love What You Do (scheduled for release on August 30, 2005 on Nettwerk) bears witness to the Hackensaw ethic and juxtaposes the group’s relentless drive with their sagacious songcraft. Recorded in no less than four studios from Amsterdam to San Francisco over the course of more than two years, Love What You Do documents a band exploring the possibilities of the studio environment while hewing to the excitement and raw energy of their live performances. Love What You Do consists of 12 original songs that invoke the band’s old-time roots and sensibilities even as they blur the lines that separate old-time, folk, country and rock. Taken together, the songs on Love What You Do relate both the heartbreaks and joys of a group that strives to deliver music that matters. As such, Love What You Do is the culmination of years spent on the road, fans made across the globe, members gained and lost and enough love of craft to attract the attention of some of the music industry’s biggest movers and shakers.

The Hackensaw Boys’ first disc, Get Some – a high-octane collection of original and traditional material - was recorded in July of 2000 on a sweltering day in the Coles’ family parlor playing to a reel-to-reel machine and a couple of torpid hounds. Invigorated by the overwhelmingly positive response to their first album and aided by the acquisition of a 1964 GMC touring coach, affectionately dubbed the Dirty Bird, the Hackensaws steadily increased their touring radius.

Back in Charlottesville, with new fans across the nation and fresh songs bursting from the group’s songwriters, the boys recorded Keep It Simple, an album which placed introspective pieces and high-octane burners side-by-side in a collection of all original tunes that pushed the Americana envelope to its most vibrant edge. The group’s next recording, Give It Back, consisted of traditional material performed in the seediest clubs America has to offer. Through it all, the Hackensaw Boys, a 12-piece outfit in those days, spent many a hot, sleepless night crammed into the Dirty Bird as it pitched and swayed from coast-to-coast.

On one such night in Brooklyn, a Hackensaw Boy recorded his experience in these terms:

After several nights of three-hour sets lasting until all hours of the morning, our part of the show was over. After tearing down the microphones and packing up the instruments I decided to take a walk and grab a slice of pizza. I returned to find a full-scale party in progress on the bus. Our buddy had purchased forty dollars’ worth of cheap beer and I counted 32 (that’s right 32!) people of all ages and walks of life crammed into the bus. A picking session started courtesy the three vixen fiddle players on board and all the while the rain was coming down like it was judgement day but in the parking lot a small haven of lantern-lit old-time madness was just getting fired up.

At some point during the evening I managed to press “record” on a portable tape machine and now, listening back to that night, I am reminded that . . . What? That music is forever? That people make the best of situations? That true love conquers all? Hell no. The only thing I hear is a bunch of drunken monkeys with banjos, fiddles, guitars, mandolins and whatnot cranking away in the Brooklyn night. And that, for the moment, was probably the best live show in the country.

The Hackensaw Boys have not ceased to travel. They’ve been on two Unlimited Sunshine Tours with artists ranging from Cheap Trick and the Detroit Cobras to De La Soul and The Flaming Lips. They’ve had two riotous tours with Modest Mouse; backed up country music legend Charlie Louvin on 18 coast-to-coast dates; played the 2003 and 2004 Bonnaroo Festivals as well as the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and The High Sierra Music Festival; participated in the Jam Cruise; shared a New Year’s Eve bill at the historic Ryman Auditorium with the Del McCoury Band; enjoyed two successful swings through Belgium and The Netherlands (where they were voted the best show of the year in the Vera Reader’s Poll) and traveled extensively in the U.S. with Camper Van Beethoven.

They’ve survived departures and arrivals, blessings and, most importantly, each other. Add to this, thousands of nights in hundreds of clubs from Nashville to Bangor, from Los Angeles to Rotterdam and you begin to get an idea of the dedication and sheer mule-like tenacity that is the Hackensaw Boy ethic. So, whether you catch these guys on the road or pick them up in a store, be sure to check out The Hackensaw Boys – the perfect anodyne for the aches and pains of modern life.

Love What You Do will hit the streets on August 30, 2005 on Nettwerk America.

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The Hackensaw Boys - Love What You Do