Nighthawks
Has any modern band defied labels as successfully as the Nighthawks? They want it every which way rock, blues, roots — and the ‘Hawks always get their way, and have for 36 years and counting. Such skillful genre-hopping is the reason their fan base ranges from mohawked skateboarders to dyed-in-the-wool Chicago blues purists.
American Landscape is an amusing dozen cuts showcasing the band’s individual and collective strengths amusing because it’s the rare blues-roots album that will make you giddy as you listen to it. Particularly if you put it on without looking at the titles or names of the composers.
“Big Boy”, a dense, suitably crunchy warmup for vocalist Mark Wenner and his harmonica player and guitarist Paul Bell, here playing in a cobalt-hued trench-like groove dug by bassist Johnny Castle and drummer Pete Ragusa. By the time the tune comes to its slow-burn finale, you’re ready for the rough stuff you know the Nighthawks will deliver.
And then the first line to the next song is, “When you walk through the garden, you gotta watch your back…” Hey, that’s familiar. Wait. That’s…Waits. As in Tom. And indeed, it’s “Down In The Hole”; it’s presented here not as a chaotic rant by a bone machine, but in a dark, haunting blues-gospel setting, with a call-and-response chorus that sounds like it’s in the titular fissure.
And then they hit you with, “She’s got everything she needs, she’s an artist, she don’t look back.” Oh come on, now, Dylan? Yes indeed: “She Belongs To Me”, but as you never heard it before, because Wenner adds a significant amount of guttural testosterone to the number, as he does on just about everything else. Four songs into the disc, Bell wrings out his Fender on Ike Turner’s “Matchbox”, trading licks with Wenner’s harp.
Time for an original. Just when you thought all the clever turns of phrase were gone, Castle (who also fronts D.C. rockers the Thrillbillys) comes up with a title line like “Where Do You Go (When You Go Without Me)” and puts it to a catchy melody and a sturdy arrangement. Castle chimes in again later with “Jana Lea”, a roots-rocker of the first order.
And so it goes. Bluesy, rocky, rootsy, bluesy. The album takes in another Dylan tune (“Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine”), plus songs from Steve Cropper (“Don’t Turn Your Heater Down”) and Dan Penn (a blustery blues-rock take on the soulful “Standing In The Way”). To close out this mirthful, wonderfully selective survey of American music, “Fishin’ Hole” known the world over as the whistling theme to The Andy Griffith Show is presented here a little faster and with a lot more swing. And if that doesn’t make you giddy, nothing will.