Album Notes

This is Hawk's seventh album and third as a member of the Train Wreck Endings. He enlisted Merel Bregante (one-time drummer for Loggins & Messina, The Dirt Band, and on Steve Martin's hit single, "King Tut") to co-produce and mix the CD in Austin, Texas. It was mastered in Austin by Jerry Tubb at Terra Nova Digital Audio. Tubb has mastered works by heavyweights from John Lennon to Willie Nelson.

It's also the first time a cover song appears on a Hawk album. New Order's 1982 single "Temptation" has been a staple of Hawk's live shows for years. The band took the new wave/dance song and made it their own, giving it an Americana spin. Hawk said he based his arrangement on a late-'80s cover of the song by a Pittsburgh band called The Affordable Floors. "That was the only version I'd heard at the time, and I love it," Hawk said. "It's much rockier than the original, which I love as well. A great song can jump genres, and this is a great song. We're proud to have it on this one."

Hawk also enlisted some Austin session men to give the songs an added bit of professionalism. Riley Osbourne plays beautiful piano on "Prettier Song", a heartbreaking ballad, and adds a tasty Hammond-B3 organ part to "Been Down So Long", a new blues song in the traditional form. Carl LoShiavo provides fretless bass to "Prettier Song", and plays a swampy bass on "Mason-Dixon Line", a minor-key blues song about a guy pining for his home in the north.

All in all, an album that seems perfect for a stroll through the neighborhood on a cool, sunny fall day...