Will Hawkins
Next Stop Bedford Avenue (2002)

Review by: Michael Walls
Date: 12/15/03

Alt country is starting to become a broad and general category that, unfortunately, is the only place at the moment to file the music of Will Hawkins. I say unfortunate because I think Will Hawkins is much more than that. “Alt country” immediately conjures up aural images of Jeff Tweedy or Ryan Adams, crooning out lyrics, hitting notes differently with each pass of the chorus, making you wonder if they were half-in-the-bag when recording it. Don’t get me wrong, it is a style I’ve come to enjoy. But this isn’t the style of music that Mr. Hawkins employs on his debut release Next Stop Bedford Avenue.

Instead of Tweedy or Adams, imagine the velvety smooth vocals of Tom Jones, set against a backdrop of twangy Chris Isaak-style Americana music, and you’ve just imagined Will Hawkins.

Hawkins sounds like he should have grown up in the mid-west, kicking around dusty truck stops and shady taverns, listening to Roy Orbison and Hank Williams. Instead, Hawkins claims upstate New York as his hometown, New York City as his current residence and Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen as influences.

Regardless of his background, Hawkins has a unique vocal style that carries each of his songs. Whether it be a soft, soulful acoustic ballad like “California” or a horn-blowing, honky-tonk tune like “The Someday” or a super-cool, guitar-twanging song like “I Wanna Be Your Man” – Hawkins vocals are why you like it.

“The Someday” is one of this CDs stand-out tracks. An impossible-to-dislike, big, bold, horn-backed tune, with Hawkins belting out the vocals, that to me, sounds like Neil Diamond. And admit it – we all love Neil Diamond.

Hawkins does mix up the sound on this CD, sounding like a modern lounge-singing Tom Jones, a road-weary singing cowboy, a coffee-house folk singer, and even a bluesy surfside Chris Isaak. But with some lyrics like “I met a girl from Kalamazoo; she had sweaty palms and four tattoos” (from “Around”) or “I find myself walking down Bedford at 3am; hoping to find a friend to help me drink away this pain” (from “All the Rage”), and with that sweet acoustic slide guitar sound, you can’t help but call this country.

Finally, with a tribute song to the memory of 9/11, “City of Dust”, Hawkins shows he can write from the heart without sounding corny or contrived – and to me that can’t be country music.