I See Hawks In L.A. | |
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Origin | Los Angeles, California, USA |
Genres | Alternative country |
Years active | 2000 - present |
Labels | Ethic Records, Western Seeds Records, American Beat Records |
Members | Rob Waller (vocals/, guitar) Paul Lacques (guitars, vocals, dobro) Paul Marshall (bass, vocals) Victoria Jacobs (drums, vocals) |
Past members | David Jackson, Anthony Lacques, Shawn Nourse, Brantley Kearns, Marcus Watkins |
Website | www.iseehawks.com |
I See Hawks In L.A. is an alternative country group from Los Angeles, California founded in 1999 by Rob Waller and brothers Paul and Anthony Lacques with the support of established West Coast country rock bassist David Jackson. Their music incorporates the traditional elements of country music, vocal harmonies and traditional instruments including acoustic guitar and fiddle.
Their 2001 debut album, I See Hawks In L.A., (featuring exDave Alvin and Dwight Yoakam fiddle player Brantley Kearns and an album cover designed by ex-Vision Street Wear artist Andy Takakjian) made the Alternative Country Chart and led them to perform regularly in country music clubs in California, joined by ex-Strawberry Alarm Clock and Hank Thompson bassist Paul Marshall and Dwight Yoakam's drummer Shawn Nourse. With this core line-up now established they went on to record four more albums (as of summer 2010) and tour more widely, including a 2006 tour of the US and Europe with Tony Gilkyson and another European tour in 2008. They have since opened shows for Lucinda Williams and Chris Hillman, the former Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers musician who played on I See Hawks in L.A.'s third album along with a number of respected country music session musicians such as Rick Shea, Tommy Funderburk, Cody Bryant and Danny McGough. The band continues to play regularly and has become one of the best-known country music acts in Southern California. [1] [2] [3] Their albums have had country music chart success and they were named Best Country Artist by LA Weekly in 2002 and 2003. From 2003 to 2006 they enjoyed a residency at Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet in downtown Los Angeles and they regularly appear at The Echo (venue) in Echo Park, CA, and Pappy & Harriet's in Pioneertown, California. They have also appeared at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, the Gram Parsons tribute Gram fest in Joshua Tree, California, and the Seattle Hempfest.
Regarding the name they say, The band name was a code, a question, a diffident invitation: If you see hawks, then maybe we should talk. The topics of their lyrics include a bio-sketch of Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who stood up to George W. Bush during the Iraq War
From 2003 to 2006 the Hawks enjoyed a weekly residency at Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet in downtown Los Angeles. Guests at these shows included PF Sloan, Lowen & Navarro, Carlos Guitarlos, and Amy Farris.
With a core lineup of Rob Waller, Paul Lacques, Paul Marshall and Shawn Nourse the band recorded Grapevine, California Country and Hallowed Ground. These albums featured numerous guests including Chris Hillman of the Byrds, Rick Shea, Tommy Funderburk, Cody Bryant, Dave Zirbel, Gabe Witcher, Dave Markowitz, Joe Beraldi, Richie Lawrence, Marcus Watkins, Marc Doten, John McDiffie and Danny McGough. Singer songwriter Carla Olson was a featured guest of the group's Shoulda Been Gold "best of" album which included a few new tracks and she continues to collaborate with the band on recording projects and live shows.
In 2012 I See Hawks In LA recorded their first all acoustic album, "New Kind Of Lonely," which made the top ten Freeform American Roots and European Americana charts. It was released in Europe and the UK on Blue Rose.
In 2018 the band released "Live And Never Learn," their 8th album. Drummer Victoria Jacobs appeared all 14 tracks and is the featured duet vocalist along with Rob Waller on the tragicomic ballad "My Parka Saved Me" which received substantial airplay on US, UK and European Americana radio.
The band's July 2019 album, "Hawks With Good Intentions," is an acoustic folk Americana collaboration with the UK's leading folk duo, The Good Intentions. The project began as a songwriting session between Hawks Rob Waller and Paul Lacques with Peter Davies (of The Good Intentions).
Ingram Cecil Connor III, known professionally as Gram Parsons, was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist. He recorded as a solo artist and with the International Submarine Band, the Byrds, and the Flying Burrito Brothers, popularizing what he called "Cosmic American Music", a hybrid of country, rhythm and blues, soul, folk, and rock.
The Byrds were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member. Although their time as one of the most popular groups in the world only lasted for a short period in the mid-1960s, the Byrds are considered by critics to be among the most influential rock acts of their era. Their signature blend of clear harmony singing and McGuinn's jangly 12-string Rickenbacker guitar was "absorbed into the vocabulary of rock" and has continued to be influential.
Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song "For What It's Worth", released three albums and several singles from 1966 to 1968. Their music combined elements of folk music and country music with influences from the British Invasion and psychedelic rock. Like contemporary band the Byrds, they were key to the early development of folk rock. The band took their name from a steamroller parked outside their house.
The Flying Burrito Brothers are an American country rock band best known for their influential 1969 debut album, The Gilded Palace of Sin. Although the group is perhaps best known for its connection to band founders Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, the group underwent many personnel changes and has existed in various incarnations. Now officially known as The Burrito Brothers the band continues to perform and record new albums.
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Sweetheart of the Rodeo is the sixth album by the American rock band the Byrds and was released in August 1968 on Columbia Records. Recorded with the addition of country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, it became the first album widely recognized as country rock as well as a seminal progressive country album, and represented a stylistic move away from the psychedelic rock of the band's previous LP, The Notorious Byrd Brothers. The Byrds had occasionally experimented with country music on their four previous albums, but Sweetheart of the Rodeo represented their fullest immersion into the genre up to that point in time. The album was responsible for bringing Parsons, who had joined the Byrds in February 1968 prior to the start of recording, to the attention of a mainstream rock audience for the first time. Thus, the album is an important chapter in Parsons' crusade to make country music fashionable for a young audience.
Paul Richard Furay is an American musician and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member. He is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey Martin, and Poco with Jim Messina, Timothy B. Schmit, Rusty Young, George Grantham and Randy Meisner. His best known song was "Kind Woman," which he wrote for his wife, Nancy.
Christopher Hillman is an American musician. He was the original bassist of the Byrds.
Americana is an amalgam of American music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the musical ethos of the United States of America, with particular emphasis on music historically developed in the American South.
Burrito Deluxe is the second album by the country rock group the Flying Burrito Brothers, released in May 1970 on A&M Records, catalogue 4258. It is the last to feature Gram Parsons prior to his dismissal from the group. It contains the first issued version of the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards-written song "Wild Horses," released almost a year before the Rolling Stones' own take on it appeared on Sticky Fingers.
Stories Told & Untold is the twelfth and final studio album by the English band Bad Company. The album was released on 15 October 1996, through East West. This album features newly arranged re-recordings of Bad Company's greatest hits in a more Americana inspired style, along with new songs. Despite not recording any further albums, the band would continue to tour until 2019.
Population Me is the 13th studio album by Dwight Yoakam. It was released in June 2003 via the Audium Records label. The album spawned two singles, "The Back of Your Hand" and "The Late Great Golden State".
Dillard & Clark was a country rock collaboration between ex-Byrds member Gene Clark and bluegrass banjo player Doug Dillard.
Through the Morning, Through the Night is the second and final album from the country rock duo Dillard & Clark, released in September 1969.
Just Lookin' for a Hit is the first compilation album by American country music artist Dwight Yoakam. It includes eight singles from his 1980s albums for Reprise Records, as well as two newly recorded cover songs: "Long White Cadillac," originally recorded by The Blasters, and "Sin City," originally recorded by the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Albert Sidney "Sid" Griffin is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist-mandolinist, bandleader, and author who lives in London, England. He led the Long Ryders band in the 1980s, founded the Coal Porters group in the 1990s, has recorded several solo albums and is the author of volumes on Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons and bluegrass music.
Rick Shea is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who lives in Southern California. His career spans four decades and in that time he has worked as a solo artist and with bands such as Chris Gaffney and The Cold Hard Facts and Dave Alvin's Guilty Men. Additionally, Shea fronts his own band, the Losin' End. His influences are many and include the hardcore honky of Hank Williams as well as a myriad of American artists and international folk musicians. Eclectic in his stance, his live shows entice audiences across the United States and Europe. He has released ten albums and continues to write, record and produce both his own music and that of other artists.
"Old John Robertson" is a song by the American rock band the Byrds, written by band members Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn, and first released in July 1967, as the B-side to the non-album single "Lady Friend". It was also later included on the band's 1968 album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers. The version of "Old John Robertson" featured on the single is a substantially different mix from the version that appeared on The Notorious Byrd Brothers.
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