The Hackensaw Boys. The Hackensaw Boys

The Hackensaw Boys are back in NL. Tuesday they play the venue I saw them for the first time, Q Bus in Leiden. It must have been 2004, 'Keep It Simple' the album at hand. A show so energetic that I was pretty spellbound for most of the show, with not one but two spine tingling moments if I remember correctly.

A few months later the band played there again and I brought my then 10 year old son. He went out to score some autographs and did not return from the dressing room. What is he doing there? Also the show did not start at the indicated time. He was getting a guitar lesson. Playing for a couple of months at the time, he was taught The Beatles' 'Blackbitd' in the dressing room and not leaving until he could play that first riff.

In The Hackensaw Boys members come and go and so did singer-guitarist-songwriter David Sickmen. Years later, after he returned, we went to the band's dressing room once again and 'Blackbird' was played in its entirety. "It is the same guitar, you know", David said.

By now I have no clue how many times I've seen the band play, except that I've missed the last tour. perhaps one other through the almost 20 years. This Tuesday is gonna be tight. Still positive or not?

This year, The Hackensaw Boys released a new album and I have to admit I hadn't bothered to listen to it. Also, because I knew this date would come in December. I wanted to listen to the album with a fresh ear and I have a few times now. Am I very enthusiastic? No. Am I disappointed? No, far from even. What it is, is that The Hackensaw Boys misses one piece of pepper: Jimmy Stelling's banjo. Ever since he left for the second time, there's something missing. This is compensated in several songs, where exactly the right notes are played at the right moment. These little pieces of The Hackensaw Boys magic is present on the new album.

David Sickmen without a doubt is and was the best songwriter of all members, a few positive, individual exceptions aside. However, now he is the only writer and this does make the band more uniform. In 2022 The Hackensaw Boys is David Sickmen with more or less anonymous musicians accompanying him. That enormous source of energy circling around the band is no longer there. (Yes, I know, I'm also almost 20 years older.)

'The Hackensaw Boys' is a nice album to listen to and I love listening to Sickmen's voice, anytime. It is not an album to live through, to be energised by. This makes it a different band, that I still very much hope to be present at tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order The Hackensaw Boys here:

https://hackensawboys.bandcamp.com/album/hackensaw-boys