Updated: july 6 2006
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If you want to get an idea of where Weaver Hawkins is coming from, you’ve got to think Woody Guthrie, John Prine, Steve Stills, Vic Chesnutt, Neal Casel, Josh Ritter and Billy Bragg. That is to say, he focuses on everyday issues using everyday language — never one to use a metaphor when he can tell it straight. He is also interested in the truth — songs about real people and real events.
On his debut CD Slow Rider, Hawkins writes about the usual suspects — love, disappointment, joy, betrayal, politics — but he does it in a very individual style. The song This Land, for example, came about after a road trip up the West coast of the United States immediately after 9/11. The protagonist, who described himself as the ‘only man of colour in the county’, was of Mayan origin, but found himself the object of attention from the security services, who were convinced he was probably a terrorist. At the other end of the scale, Part Of Me is a very personal reflection on fatherhood and the extreme emotions that go with it.
Slow Rider was recorded in Hawkins’ makeshift studio, mainly late at night while the artist’s two children slept upstairs. As an album it’s also something of a slow burner — one of those records that the first time you listen, you may think, “Yeah, that’s alright.” Three listens later, and those songs get a hold of you and you know you’ve heard something special.