today
8:30 a.m. Audubon Society Field Trip See Event Description
read >8:30 a.m. Alzheimer’s Resource Center Volunteer Training See Event Description
read >9 a.m. Arcata Farmers' Market Arcata Plaza
read >9 a.m. Speakers' Symposium College of the Redwoods
read >9 a.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens Foundation Speakers’ Symposium College of the Redwoods
read >9 a.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens' Speakers' Symposium College of the Redwoods
read >9 a.m. Fall Rummage Sale Arcata United Methodist Church
read >9:30 a.m. AAUW Meeting See Event Description
read >9:30 a.m. Little River State Beach Restoration See Event Description
read >9:30 a.m. Sierra Club Headwaters Hike See Event Description
read >10 a.m. Lanphere Dunes Guided Walk See Event Description
read >10 a.m. 5th Annual Synergy Fair Arcata Community Center
read >10 a.m. Go Green and Boost Your Bottom Line Wharfinger Building
read >11 a.m. Sustaining Excellence and Enthusiasm in Health, Relationships and Work Carlo Theater (Dell'Arte)
read >noon KEET's Kids Club Morris Graves Museum of Art
read >1:30 p.m. Humboldt County Historical Society Humboldt County Library
read >2 p.m. Arcata Marsh Field Trip Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary Interpretive Center
read >4 p.m. Woodside Preschool’s 36th Wine and Ale Tasting Gala Adorni Recreation Center
read >4:30 p.m. Harvest Dinner and Bazaar Humboldt Grange
read >5 p.m. A Toast to Music Christ Episcopal Church
read >5:30 p.m. Elvis and the Hound Dogs + Stolen Taxi Trinidad Town Hall
read >6 p.m. The Tumbleweeds Chapala Cafe
read >6 p.m. Arts Alive! Various Locations
read >6 p.m. Day of the Dead Exhibition Ink People Center for the Arts
read >6 p.m. Bar None 10th Anniversary Eureka Labor Temple
read >6 p.m. Randy Spicer Piante Gallery
read >6 p.m. Gallery Open for Arts Alive! Four Paths Gallery and Studio
read >6:30 p.m. ShinBone (Blues R&B) Eureka Theater
read >7 p.m. Mike Craighead and Sari Baker Old Town Coffee & Chocolates
read >7 p.m. Harvest Concert Arcata Presbyterian Church
read >7 p.m. 2 Left Feet Dance Project Redwood Raks World Dance Studio
read >7:30 p.m. Joe & Me Cafe Mokka
read >7:30 p.m. Cyrano de Begerac Eureka High School Auditorium
read >7:30 p.m. Torch Song Summit Eureka Women's Club
read >7:30 p.m. Jeff DeMark and the LaPatinas Westhaven Center for the Arts
read >8 p.m. Stones in His Pockets Arcata Playhouse
read >8 p.m. Humboldt Bay Brass Band Fulkerson Recital Hall at HSU
read >9 p.m. Synergy Six Rivers Brewery
read >9 p.m. Arts Alive! with Akaboom Sound Pearl Lounge
read >9 p.m. Tempest WAVE @ blue lake casino
read >9 p.m. Back In The Daze Dance Party Central Station Cocktail Lounge
read >9 p.m. Swingin' Country Band (country) Bear River Casino
read >9 p.m. The Zygoats + Alder Camp (rock) The Lil' Red Lion
read >9 p.m. DJ Knutz (funk) Muddy's Hot Cup
read >10 p.m. Music by DJ Sidelines
read >10 p.m. DJ Icy Hot Aunty Mo's Lounge
read >10 p.m. These United States (indie folk) Humboldt Brews
read >11 p.m. Hellbound Glory The Alibi Lounge and Restaurant
read >previous columns
June 25, 2009
Humboldt Crabs vs. Fairfield Indians
Arcata Ballpark, June 6, 2009
read >June 18, 2009
Balf Quarry
By Magik Markers. Drag City.
read >June 11, 2009
The Eternal
By Sonic Youth. Matador.
read >
Delivrance
By A Hawk and A Hacksaw. Leaf.
By Mark Shikuma
Former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer/percussionist Jeremy Barnes and his partner violinist/violist Heather Trost are true travelers, nomads. The duo, the core members of A Hawk and A Hacksaw, have carved out a circular route from their point of origin, Albuquerque, N.M., to Devon, England, and on to Budapest, Hungary.
Yet this doesn't seem to really be out-of-the-ordinary for Barnes, who was part of a unique musical collective based just outside of Athens, Georgia, that evolved into The Elephant 6 Recording Company. A number of bands bloomed from this "collective," including Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal, Elf Power, Essex Green and Olivia Tremor Control. Barnes, who displayed his powerful talent on drums with Neutral Milk Hotel, branched out further musically than many of his old colleagues.
Barnes and Trost have ventured into a different era. It's as if they've peeled back a thin veiled curtain to reveal their world of old folk and traveler music, much of it derived from Balkan, Middle Eastern, Slavic and Celtic influences, blending it with U.S. counterparts, mainly from Mariachi and New Orleans Dixieland traditions. A Hawk and A Hacksaw's new release, Délivrance, illuminates this atmosphere of a turn-of-last-century carnival, one of mystique, surrealism and wonder.
The first cut, "Font tu Argile," starts with a gauzy basement-style introduction, soon giving way to a full sound, marked with the striking of a cimbalom (a stringed instrument struck, like a piano, by small, padded mallets, creating high, tinny ringed notes). The "band," more like a crazed orchestra, strikes up with a cross between a dance and a march, with Barnes and his frenetic accordion riffs leading the way.
Heather Trost, who wrote or co-wrote on nearly the entire release, contributes various string parts on violin, viola and the antiquated stroh violin (a violin with a metallic narrow bell cone attached) that accompany the songs so succinctly, you may not notice her adeptness in a variety of musical styles, from klezmer to Chinese Opera (as exemplified in a beautiful rendition of "Lassú"). "Hummingbird," written by Barnes, showcases Trost's musicianship and craft; the song successfully translates the beating of a hummingbird's wings.
Barnes and Trost have assembled a brilliant ensemble, including Farenc Kovács (trumpet and violin), instrumentalist Béla Ágostan and cimbalom player Bálazs Unger from Budapest's Hun Hangár Ensemble, early AHAAH member Mark Weaver, and new additions, namely cimbalom player Kálmán Balogh, featured on "Kertész" and in a furious solo on "Hummingbirds." Since the 2004 debut release of A Hawk and A Hacksaw, initially a Barnes solo project, the arc and transformation of this band, as evidenced on each successive recording, has grown, metaphorically and physically. Délivrance is a document of this emerging collective, who evoke sounds that are contemporary, unique and old world/traditional simultaneously.


















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