A Hawk and a Hacksaw with guests SULK

A hawk and a hacksaw: a rooster, a gaggle of geese, bits of tin, two rivers (one in France,  one in New Mexico), a violinist who began playing at age three, a  small cat who has three little kittens, an assortment of gongs,  wooden percussive implements, and portable drums, the occasional jazz  musician, or tuba player, an oud master, three accordions, a Romanian brass band, 4 Hungarian cosmopolitans and a Stroh violin. 

At age 18, future Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes departed from his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico with a hopeful spirit of  adventure, in hot pursuit of music. Travelling in France, living in New York and Chicago, Barnes finally settled in Leicester, England at  the turn of the millennium. There he became a postman. While delivering the mail in Leicester, every Sunday Barnes would  volunteer at the local refugee centre. “In a run down cafeteria there  were people from China, Iraq, Iran, Roma from Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria. There were Africans, Pole and Kurds. I mostly played with Iraqis and Kurds; the Roma kept to themselves. I thought there was some sort of unapproachable barrier between me and these people whom I so admired. But there wasn't.”

The experience was a revelation. Throwing in his postman’s hat,  Jeremy set off on a journey that would lead him all the way home to Albuquerque. Almost immediately, he met his paramour, the violinist Heather Trost, whose immeasurable influence on A Hawk And A Hacksaw  can be seen in the intense stage rapport the duo have live, and a visceral sense of joy that rarely leaves an audience unaffected.
    Of their album The Way The Wind Blows, Stylus magazine says it’s  “...an invigorating journey, a caravan of cavorting musicians,  careening through the countryside, stopping only to play festivals  and funerals.”
    Opening the concert is SULK. Like 10,000 kids screaming, this  Minnesota based quartet (Davu Seru – drums, Wendy Ultan – violin,  Adam Linz – contrabass, and Stefan Kac – tuba) was formed with the  idea of returning to youthful innocence; something that the members  felt was lacking in today’s jazz / improv scene. Taking influence from all corners of the elementary school band room their sound has  been compared to a ballerina with a jackhammer. This is not your ordinary quartet,  rather a faint  whisper of things forgotten in the once often visited clubhouse.

Tickets are on sale now from the Cedar Ticketline (612-338-2674 ext 2), Cedar outlets, and online at Ticketweb.