Richard Hawley, or, Apologies to Gilbert Hendry, a Grown-Ass Man

Richard Hawley - I Sleep Alone [mp3]

Richard Hawley - The Ocean [mp3]

I don't know why I haven't written about Richard Hawley yet. I saw him on a television show called Later with Jools Holland, which I was watching because the National were featured on that episode as well. I remember how strange it was watching that band under stage lights, playing to a nation, when just a month before I had seen them in a little Glaswegian club, where they seemed at home in the dark and smoke. The Rakes were playing on this program as well, and I recall finding their wiry, distinctly British paranoia entertaining (if not entirely original). Most groups performed two songs, except for a man dressed entirely in black, an outfit as understated and classic as the song he played. He was Richard Hawley, and he had a low, beautiful voice that sung of the ocean over an appropriate swelling of strings and percussion. It was a performance entirely and wonderfully out of time, flawlessly and tastefully executed without an ounce of pretension. I can't imagine anyone not liking Hawley's music, which isn't to say it's innocuous or uninteresting. It's just that, despite its obvious strength, music this classically good can feel well-known, and in the neverending search for the new and different it's much too easy to dismiss Hawley as an (admittedly teriffic) oldies-fetishist. Ironically, it is his music which stands out from the majority, nearly flawless and particularly stirring.

Visit Richard Hawley online, and buy the fantastic Coles Corner here.