Dan Haywoods New Hawks - John's Shoes / Superquarry

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4...according to our Dave on Thu 12 Jan, 2012.

Folksy winsomeness from a talented singer songwriter who while not penning folk songs is fascinated by ornithology and people watching. The New Hawks have a very traditional sound that has Anglo-Celtic feel and a very interesting take on modern folk music. The title track 'John's Shoes' has a lively sound and smooth production, while Haywood's musings about life and how to live it are top notch. The flip side called 'Superquarry' is also a good song. It also has an upbeat feel and interesting lyrics and sweet instrumentation. It's a great song, and I actually prefer it to the title track...but there you go. A sure fire folk hit and one that sounds delightful and makes you want to wear big jumpers and grow lavish beards...

For this double A-sided gem of a 7" single, Lancaster’s resident wayfarer of characterful psych-roots music, Dan Haywood congregated his 9 piece New Hawks country band in a local church: what followed was a righteous revisiting of two of the perkiest cuts from their much-lauded eponymous triple debut album (a record that’s "positively livid with ideas" according to The Wire). As ever with Haywood, there's a whole bibliography of references lurking on the lyric sheet. The man himself pegs 'John’s Shoes' as a slab of "goose-shooting Outer-Hebridean OCD funk", its title bizarrely cribbing a phrase from a set of printed napkins depicting "'Sayings of the Pennsylvanian Dutch". 'Superquarry', meanwhile, does what somebody just had to do; marrying a slinky latin-tinged acoustic shuffle to the tale of a proposed quarry development on the Scottish island of Harris, finally abandoned on environmental grounds in 2004. More broadly for Haywood it evokes "a beautiful nation sullied by fear and greed", as well as nailing some closely held home truths.The single finds both of these songs reborn in a celestial reverb chamber populated by bongos, fiddles, guitars, pedal steel, organs and who knows what else: a gorgeous primer for those yet to explore the fertile wilds of Dan Haywood's New Hawks. Autumn 2011 finds the band out on tour, including their highest profile shows to date at London’s Cafe Oto (Nov 24th) and Le Guess Who? Festival in Holland (Nov 27th) alongside Bill Callahan, Steven Malkmus, Panda Bear among others. These shows will see Dan and band delve deep into their distinctive repertoire, drawing from what is the only album to be released under the New Hawks name.

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