A Conversation with Sarah Hawker (continued)

PM: Now, speaking of getting out there, which I really value in all forms, I was amazed by your adaptation of the Rumi poem "Like This."

SH: [laughs] Yeah, that was kind of out there, huh?

PM: Wow! It was fantastic. [There are audio clips of this and some other songs from the new CD, as well as a couple each from the previous two Lonesome Sisters albums, on the Listen page.]

SH: [laughs] Yeah, it had been something that I had been thinking about a long time. And I had been going back and forth with the idea. I actually had this as an offshoot. It was part of an experiment, because I was thinking, "I wonder if I could make a whole CD of poems--if I could take a book of poetry and turn it into songs--"

PM: You know that now somebody has done that?

SH: Who's done that?

PM: Kris Delmhorst.

SH: Really?

PM: Yes.

SH: What poet?

PM: A bunch of poets.

SH: A bunch of different ones.

PM: But I mean, serious poetry, and she set it to music. It's her latest record. I don't really know it yet. She records for Signature Sounds--she's very good.

SH: Oh, wow. I'll have to listen to that.

[Kris Delmhorst's new album is called Strange Conversation--more about it here at her site.]

SH: So yeah, that song just came out of an experiment. And I love his stuff--I mean, particularly Coleman's [Barks] translation of Rumi's poetry is beautiful.

PM: I had a cassette of Coleman reading Rumi that I completely wore out. I don't even know where it is anymore. I listened to it thousands of times. How do you know that material? Did you have the same tape, or some tapes like it?

SH: Maybe I caught it on--I don't know, it might have been part of that series about God or something, on Channel 13 [New York's PBS channel]. I don't even know. Somewhere I just had this glimpse, and they did a piece on Coleman talking about Rumi and reading.

PM: Okay. I've got to find this tape now for you. I'm going to find it on CD. [More about Coleman Barks and Rumi in our review of one of Coleman's recordings, here.]

SH: Yeah, I would love to hear that. Absolutely. So yeah, I just always loved that. And I thought, you know, Rumi was a Sufi dude, I don't think he'd mind if I messed around with it, he'd probably get with it. So yes, I took one poem and I just started messing around. And actually, I did it totally as an experiment, and I wasn't planning on putting it on the CD. And then everyone--Debra and Chad and everybody just said, "Oh, yeah, we have do that." It was actually just an exercise [laughs] to see if I could do it.

PM: Well, since you've mentioned him now, twice, let's talk about this guy, Chad Crumm.

SH: Oh, yeah.

PM: How did he become part of your world and what does he do for you?

SH: Well, he was where we went for our very first recording. He's up in Ithaca. [www.musictankrecording.com] And he's a great musician. He listens to all kinds of music, but he's a great old-time fiddler. He also has a sense of a lot of things outside of that, which is really important. And it's amazing, because first of all, his ability to get the sound right on the instruments--like exactly how you want the sound of the banjo--he's a beautiful technician in that sense. And also he's very good at my vocal, because I have a very dynamic range. I blow out microphones all the time.

PM: Ah.

SH: So he got that down.

PM: He got that down with limiters and--

SH: God only knows. I don't know what he did.

PM: But he got it down electronically.

SH: Electronically he figured out how to do it.

PM: And mic placement, right?

SH: Yeah. And so we kind of set that all up on the first CD. But the other thing that he did was he always was so supportive, and I think he almost saw what we were when we couldn't see what we were. And he really was in there 100 percent saying, "You know what? That doesn't sound like you." Like, "Try it like this." He's really in there. I mean, on all three CDs, I have to say, his input has been absolutely enormous.

PM: He sounds kind of like a producer.

SH: Yeah, yeah. And on the third one, he definitely--it was just the three of us all together. But yeah, he's always been, "Look, I'm just recording it, but I'm just telling you that this is what I think." And that is so valuable, just to have somebody who's recording you that's listening and cares and gets it. And so yeah, I'd say that he's totally integral to the sound of those CDs.

PM: He's basically a contemporary in age, thereabouts, or?

SH: He's probably in his late forties, early fifties. And he's been in lots and lots of bands up in the Ithaca area.

PM: So on the second record, the amazing Riley Baugus made some key contributions.

SH: Ah!

PM: Can we talk a little about him.

SH: Yes. Riley is one of the most soulful people I have ever met in my life, I have to say. I mean, just musically, when I met him--I met him at this festival we were both playing at up in Ithaca, a grassroots festival. And he had heard me sing. And he really sat on the edge of the stage the entire time.

PM: Yo.

SH: And afterwards I was sitting and eating something, or whatever, in the musicians' area. And he came and sat across from me. And I don't remember how we got talking, but man, he just started singing some primitive Baptist song to me.

PM: What?

SH: [laughs] I know! It was just like in and out of conversation. I mean, he just drops it in there. He'll just start singing a line from a George Jones song.

PM: Oh, man.

SH: And so we were sitting there and we were trading back and forth and eating and talking shit, basically. And I was thinking, "I love this guy." And we went and we sat down, and he got out a bottle of whiskey.

PM: [laughs]

SH: And they had to come in and carry me out at like 4:00 in the morning, because we just had a total aesthetic country song throw-down.

PM: Oh, wow!

SH: And that's all we did. And I would sing, and he, in five seconds, could sing back to me, in guitar, exactly what I meant.

PM: Wow.

SH: And I just loved that about him.

PM: So he's equally adept at guitar, banjo, and other things?

SH: Oh, yeah.

PM: Because we first heard about him in our interview with Abigail Washburn.

SH: Oh, okay, yeah.

PM: And she had gone down to study with him in his trailer.

SH: Yep, for his banjo playing. Oh, my God, yes, he's amazing.

PM: And at Merlefest I was backstage in the eating area, and up stepped a guy that I recognized. And I said, "Well, you've got to be Riley Baugus." And he said, "Yeah, I am." And we talked about music for a little bit. And I told him about Puremusic, that I wanted to do something with him and some of the other usual suspects.

SH: Right.

PM: And so yeah, we've talked a couple of times, and he just really did seem like an amazing character. And he seems to be mentor to many.

SH: Yes, yes, he is.

PM: And he did some righteous tracks on that second record, Going Home Shoes.

SH: Yeah!    continue

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