Hawker Heights is Back!

Well well well, it’s a been a while, huh?

Okay, so here it is: the return of Hawker Heights at 303 Northcote, Melbourne.

What’s different? Well, the whole ‘vibe of the thing’, really. Since the last update, things have changed for me a lot. Firstly, my want to perform music in a different way. I love the blues, but it has limits for me, for what it can take to entertain, so the Hawker Heights repertoire is now 99% music from Louisiana/NOLA — Jon Cleary, Lee Dorsey, Earl King, the Meters, Professor Longhair and more.

Now this is stuff I really dearly love: the birthplace of American music as we know it today, really — jazz, r&b,funk, soul, zydeco, country, all that.

Also, the lineup for the ‘full’ band is a bit of a rejig: still my mate Craig Strain on the bass, but now Joel Smithard on the Hammond/keys and Anthony Stanislavski on drums.

And what a find these latter two are! Joel, via his participation in a mutual friend’s band, and Anthony, simply a Facebook friend I’d never officially met in real life; turns out, these blokes are absolute beasts!

May the grooves begin!

— Neil