HACKENSAW BOYS – “A Fireproof House of Sunshine” – June 21, 2019 on Free Dirt Records
For the past twenty years, Hackensaw Boys have been a hard-touring force of nature in the American roots music world, bringing a punk ferocity to their stringband base and a powerful sensitivity to their ballad roots. Operating more as a collective than a band, Hackensaw Boys were around before the O Brother craze kickstarted Americana, back in the old alt-country days. With all this history, it shook up bandleader and lead singer David Sickmen when long-time band member Ferd Moyse let him know that he was leaving the band in 2018. Sickmen’s a man who survived throat surgery to save his voice and endured any number of hardships over two decades on the road, but nothing hits harder than a crisis of faith for a man who’s used his own indomitable will to push past every obstacle. Sickmen realized Hackensaw Boys was more of an ethos, a mission statement to raise a little hell, encourage a more peaceful world, and bring the music back to its roots in a working-class American vernacular.
Sickmen formed up a brand-new band – Beau Dodson (“charismo,” percussion and vocals), Chris Stevens (bass), Caleb Powers (fiddle, Banjo, Mandolin, Vocals) – drawing from no shortage of talent in the group’s pool of musical friends and compatriots. Keeping their roots close to home in Lynchburg, VA, Hackensaw Boys have a new EP, A Fireproof House of Sunshine, coming out on June 21, 2019 with their label Free Dirt Records. The EP’s title nods to Sickmen’s fiery new purpose, and his wish to build something that endures. “I always thought that our story was about all the people that have come and gone from the band,” Sickmen says, “but I think now the story’s more about a band that just wants to keep developing. It’s not about the past 20 years we put in, it’s more about the next 20 years we want to put in.”
Upcoming Tour Dates
May 04 Kingman Island Bluegrass Festival, Washington DC
May 23 River Jam, Charlotte NC
May 24 Papa Joe’s Banjo B Que Music Festival, Evans GA
May 30 Woodlands Tavern, Columbus OH
May 31 Thunderbird Cafe, Pittsburgh PA
June 01 Bold rock Barrel Barn, Nellysford VA
June 21 Oerol Festival, Terschelling, Netherlands
June 22 Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival, Rotterdam, Netherlands
June 23 Kids N Billies, Nijmegen, Netherlands
June 24 Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands
June 26 Burgerweeshuis, Deventer, Netherlands
June 27 Nochtwache, Hamburg, Germany
June 28 Buchholz Saloonm, Altlandsberg, Germany
June 29 Rostock B.V., Bussum, Netherlands
June 30 Zoks Festival, Blerick, Netherlands
July 05 Bostheater Ommen, Ommen, Netherlands
July 06 MadNes, Ameland, Netherlands
July 10 Vail Summer Bluegrass Series, Vail CO
