Category: Hamish Hawk

Hamish Hawk has featured on the blog a couple of times previously, but never as part of this ridiculously long-running series, the first of which was A.C. Acoustics back in February 2015.

Culled from an extensive blurb over at all music:-

This Edinburgh-born singer/songwriter’s intense, lyrical compositions blend aspects of indie rock and chamber pop laced with a bone-dry sense of humour and often crammed with seemingly disparate historical and cultural references.

It took me a while to appreciate Hamish Hawk, having first seen and heard him play an acoustic solo set in support of an acoustic show by Arab Strap in October 2021 and been less than impressed.    Seeing him again, on this occasion with a full band, in Berlin in mid-2023, by which time I was very familiar with the albums Heavy Elevator and Angel Numbers, was a bit of a revelation.   His sell-out show at Glasgow Barrowlands in February 2024 was a real triumph, and with him not afraid to head out on tour as support to the likes of Simple Minds and Elbow, he has been able to grow his audience substantially over the past couple of years.

I thought his latest album, A Firmer Hand, released in August 2024 had some of his best songs but didn’t, overall, maintain the quality of the previous two records.  It’ll be interesting to see what comes next.

mp3: Hamish Hawk – The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973

From Heavy Elevator.   A magnificent song title with a magnificent lyric and tune to match.

JC

The sixth of an occasional feature in which I’ll draw your attention to some albums that have been purchased in 2023 and which I reckon are worth highlighting.

This is actually a bit of a two-for-one effort, as this year also saw me make a purchase of the artist’s previous album that was released back in 2021.

Hamish Hawk is an Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter.  He’s been making music since as far back as 2014, but it is really only over the past few years that he’s come to greater prominence.  He’s someone I had previously dismissed out of hand, all as a result of seeing him as a support act for Arab Strap back in October 2021.  His performance that evening was a solo show, and while there were a couple of times when I thought there was a decent song or vocal coming from the stage, he didn’t do enough to keep my attention for more than a few minutes.

The songs he played that night were mostly from the album Heavy Elevator, a record that many folk in Scotland were talking up as being an exceptional release, with references to The Divine Comedy, Pulp and Scott Walker very much to the fore.  Reference was also made to the involvement of Rob Jones from Idlewild on the production and management side of things, but I really felt, based on that performance in Paisley, that Hamish Hawk wasn’t for me.

At the end of last year, SWC over at No Badger Required selected a new Hamish Hawk song as one of his favourites of 2022.  SWC is someone whose taste in new music is usually bang-on, so I gave it a listen:-

Yup.   This ticked a lot of boxes.   Maybe I had been a bit hasty….this was quite different from what I’d been exposed to some 14 months previously in Paisley.

The new album, Angel Numbers, was released in February 2023.   Once again, there were loads of very positive reviews kicking around various Scottish-based websites and publications, but I still didn’t bite.

My ‘Road To Damascus’ conversion came about in a slightly strange but ultimately very rewarding way.  A short-break to Berlin was on the agenda in mid-October for myself and Rachel, and I had a look to see if there were any gigs worth seeing while we were there.  It turned out that Hamish Hawk would be in the city on our first night, at a small venue not far from our hotel.  Given that he’s on his way to likely selling-out Glasgow Barrowlands early next year, we decided it would be worth taking in the Berlin show.

I went out and bought a copy of Angel Numbers, determined to listen without prejudice.

I’m so glad I did, as It’s a truly outstanding record from start to end.   I already knew Think Of Us Kissing, which proved to be the most accessible and immediate of the tracks, but after just a couple of listens, in which I was able to fully appreciate how fabulous a wordsmith he is, I had to hold my hand up and admit that Hamish Hawk is quite a unique talent, and someone who is fully deserving of the plaudits and acclaim being heaped on him.  Oh, and his band, all of whom are credited as writing the music, provide the perfect accompaniment to his prose and poetry.

mp3: Hamish Hawk – Elvis Look-alike Shadows

This led to me going out to find a copy of Heavy Elevator.    It’s an equally enjoyable listen, and while I recognised a few tunes from that Paisley show of October 2021, they sounded so much better when delivered by a full band.

The former has become a huge favourite.  Watch out for it, and a few others, appearing on some of the hour-long mixes that pop-up round here on the odd occasion.

Oh, and I should, for the sake of completeness, say that the show in Berlin was a delight.  I picked up an as yet unreleased 12″ EP of four cover songs that have previously been available on Bandcamp, and had a brief chat with Hamish post-gig in which I told him that I’d been a late convert and why.

He wasn’t the least bit offended by what I was saying, and indeed he offered a bit of moral support by saying he remembered the gig in question, and he felt afterwards that he hadn’t fully clicked with the audience.  He signed the EP with a very lovely message, and I promised him that both myself and Rachel would make it to the Barrowlands next year.  It should be quite the show.

JC