The Nighthawks

Established 1972

VizzTone

There are not many bands that can mark a 50^th anniversary but Washington D.C.’s legendary Nighthawks, have been carrying the flame for blues and roots music since 1972.  The only two blues festivals where this writer had a major production role were the Brass Monkey Blues Festivals of 1983 and 1984 held at the Carter Barron Amphitheater in D.C. featuring The Nighthawks as headliners. Go ahead, search YouTube and you will find some footage.  The 1984 fest was broadcast on long-running D.C. station WPFW and on television by PBS. The personnel have changed considerably over the years but lead singer and harp master Mark Wenner still leads the band. Of course, in those referenced shows Jimmy Thackeray was then the guitarist. Yet, through the many changes in band members, the band has remained true to its mission of delivering authentic roots and blues music, the kind you hear once again on Established 1972.

Before we get to the album though, there could well be a new generation of listeners going to Nighthawks shows or reading this, so here’s just a few nuggets that may be of interest. Their 1979 album Full House featured guest appearances from Pinetop Perkins and Bob Margolin. Warren Haynes was briefly their lead guitarist after Thackeray’s departure until Pete Kanaras held that spot for almost twenty years. In 1988 the band became the Rosebud Agency’s East Coast house band, backing tours with Elvin Bishop, John Lee Hooker, John Hammond, and Pinetop Perkins. In 2002 the band was featured in the first episode of the second version of HBO’s The Wire.  There’s plenty more but let’s get to the music at hand from the band their fans have affectionately dubbed “The Best Bar Band in The World.”

The current lineup features along with Wenner, drummer Mark Stutso (second longest tenured member), guitarist Don Hovey and bassist Paul Pisciotta, the last two joining in 2018. The album is produced by their longtime friend and owner of Severn Records, David Earl, who sits in on guitar for “Take It Slow” while keyboardist Tommy Lepson guests on “I’ll Come Running Back to You” and “West Memphis.” As per usual, the album is mix of roots and blues covers with a few originals mixed in – one from Stutso, four from Hovey, and one credited to all four members among the fourteen. Among the covers are tunes from Jimmy Reed, Mose Allison, Ivory Joe Hunter, and Lieber & Stoller.

They begin with the rave-up “Nobody” featuring killer guitar and harp solos where all four members sing, another attribute that not many bands can claim. As you view the credits, “Vocals” appears first before the instrument is listed for each member. The first of Hovey’s tunes is a throwback R&B “You Seem Distant,” again featuring all four on the vocals with Wenner taking a signature harp excursion before Hovey steps in. The familiar “I’ll Come Running Back to You,” written by Sam Cooke in his Soul Stirrer period, is delivered wonderfully by Wenner on lead vocal as his bandmates support in doo-wop fashion. Stutso weighs in with his exuberant shuffle “Coming and Going” before they turn to an artist they almost always cover, Jimmy Reed in “Take It Slow.”  Wenner does a fine job of putting his own spin on Mose Allison’s swaggering phrasing on “Ask Me Nice.”

The second half features mostly originals from the band members but begins with the breezy soul of standout track “West Memphis” with a tasty guitar and harp statements from Hovey and Wenner as guest Lepson’s B3 adds to the mood. Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Ain’t That Lovin You Baby” is another throwback with all four singing on the chorus with Hovey cutting Chuck Berry-like guitar runs.  There’s plenty of fun and humor too, perhaps none more so than the band penned “Gas Station Chicken,” sometimes the best of so many poor options for a band on the road. Witty lines such as “I don’t understand why the Dead are Grateful” populate Hovey’s “Houseband.” Hovey’s “Fuss and Fight” is another shuffle, ideal for a turn on the dancefloor, as Wenner and the writer trade spirited solos. Following Lieber & Stoller’s tale about buying a monkey from a pawnshop broker in “Run Red Run,” Hovey offers a humorous take on the challenges of getting behind the wheel in a laid-back Hawaiian vibe for “Driving.”

The Nighthawks have an uncanny ability to unearth great, relatively unknown covers and mix them with own material, which for the most part, sound equally as vintage – true to the core pillars of roots and blues. Fifty years on, this well seems impossibly deep with no signs of running dry any time soon, swan song be damned.

• Jim Hynes

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