The Hackensaw Boys


The Hackensaw Boys are a string band based in central Virginia that formed in 1999. The band has drawn on many musical influences and are "nown best for rowdy, energetic live shows." They have performed at Bonnaroo, Lockn', FloydFest, and the All Good Music Festival. The band tours continuously and claims twenty or more current and former members. The current four-piece lineup contains only one original member, David Sickmen, who rejoined the group in 2012.
In April 2016 the band released Charismo on Free Dirt Records, their first studio album in almost a decade — which was produced by Larry Campbell.

History

The Hackensaw Boys were founded in the Fall of 1999 by Rob Bullington, Tom Peloso, David Sickmen, and Robert "Bobby" St. Ours who were all living in Charlottesville, Virginia at the time. Sickmen and Bullington met in Harrisonburg, Virginia in the early 1990s when the latter was attending James Madison University there. Bullington was playing in a band called , while Sickmen was in a group called Pieboy with Ward Harrison.Peloso formed a band with some friends in the same decade called Chigger, singing lead and playing the "doghouse bass". All had performed as young musicians on the open mic stage at the Little Grill diner in Harrisonburg, as well.
Before starting The Hackensaw Boys, Sickmen and Peloso had been talking about other possible music projects. The four founding members decided to form an old-time music group — infused with the energy and spirit of punk rock.
Hackensaw would later develop their own sound busking on the streets of Virginia. Ferd Moyse joined the group at the Town Pump Tavern in Black Mountain, North Carolina where they would often play. As a bartender at the tavern, Moyse would sit in with the band on "old-time fiddle" until he "just had to join".
After experiencing vocal trouble for almost a decade, Sickmen had surgery to remove vocal polyps in 2015. Though the operation may not have improved his singing voice, he says, his voice is "stronger" as a result of undergoing it.

"The Dirty Bird"

In the Fall of 2000, an enlarged group of twelve musicians departed from Virginia in a 1964 GMC motorcoach, nicknamed "The Dirty Bird", on the six-week Get Some Tour of "theaters, bars, street corners and alleys." The bus had been given to the group by Charlottesville developer Oliver Kuttner, together with a second one dubbed "Ramblin' Fever," which went to Mark S. Hahn, then owner of the Blue Moon Diner. Hahn briefly served as manager for the group.

Touring

The group took part in the Unlimited Sunshine Tour the first two years. The 2002 tour included headliner Cake, De La Soul, The Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, and Kinky. In addition to Cake, the 2003 tour featured Cheap Trick, "garage rockers" The Detroit Cobras, and "country legend" Charlie Louvin of the Louvin Brothers. In 2003 they served as Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Louvin's backing band on one of his last nationwide tours. They opened for Modest Mouse twice. The group continued to gain "a following as it traveled." It has performed with such major acts as Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven, and Railroad Earth. A tour in Europe featured events in Belgium and the Netherlands. Overseas they have performed in such cities as Antwerp, Amsterdam, London, Dublin, Brussels, and Utrecht. At the height of their popularity they have played venues in major music towns like Seattle, Asheville, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Knoxville, New York, Portland, Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Prior tours included appearances at the Bonnaroo Music Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado, All Good Music Festival, FloydFest in Virginia, and in Oregon. Appearances at European music festivals include Pukkelpop in Belgium and in Norway.

Nicknames

They came up with nicknames for each other because it seemed all of the old country and blues performers had them. This became a big part of their act. Original members included Robert "Mahlon" Bullington, Thomas "Pee Paw" Peloso, David "Shiner" Sickmen, and Robert "Uncle Blind Bobby" St. Ours. Phillip "Jigsaw" St. Ours played washboard in both Hackensaw and Old Crow early on, and then for Hackensaw in. Other early members included Jesse "Baby J." Fiske, Phil "Slate Hill Phil" Gianniny, and Jimmy "Kooky-Eyed Fox" Stelling. Others to join the ever-evolving group have included Chris "Sawzall" Johnson, Justin "Salvage" Neuhardt, David "Bellows Lugusi" Goldstein, Charlie "C.B." Bell, and Shawn "Plantain" Galbraith. Ferd "Four" Moyse joined in 2004, Ward "Cousin Spits" Harrison in 2006, Brian "Nugget" Gorby in 2010, and Ben "JuJu" Jacobs in 2012.

Band name

The Hackensaw Boys derived their name "from the actions you perform on a mandolin and a fiddle." Says Bullington "it was one of those jokes that sort of sticks.. and after about a week and you've played six or seven shows during the course of that week, you have no choice but to keep the name."

Recordings

The first two Hackensaw Boys albums were released by the Valley Entertainment label: Get Some in 2000 and Keep It Simple in 2002. The releases proved to have limited commercial appeal.
"Keep It Simple, is packed with vigorous, pitchy bursts" notes Amanda Petrusich in her Pitchfork review, noting the album "doesn't perfectly reflect the band's fast-and-fierce live show..
Get Some was recorded by Rhoderick Cole in his Charlottesville mansion. Keep It Simple was recorded in Sickmen's apartment in Charlottesville's Linen Building, also by Cole who did the sound engineering on both recordings. Give It Back, released in 2004, was self-produced.
The group signed with the music label Nettwerk for the 2005 release of "Love What You Do". Their second release for Nettwerk Records, Look Out! in 2007, was a "celebratory but defiant sound culled from old-time mountains, backstage doorways and punishing drives through the evolving American landscape" according to Isthmus/The Daily Page.
Another reviewer concurred, stating the album "is the Boys at their best, a perfect medium between their raw early years and the more polished sound of their previous release." Bullington states Look Out! "was definitely an attempt to capture sonically and as beautifully as possible, the sound of the Hackensaws onstage." The group went into the studio "with the defined intention of.. trying to capture the live performance as best as we possibly could. And I think we totally succeeded in doing that." The album "got to No. 6 on the Americana music charts" and "contained nine originals including a couple from the sometimes Modest Mouse, sometimes Hackensaw Tom Peloso."
Following the release of Love What You Do and Look Out!, The Hackensaws departed from Nettwerk Records to release two independently produced six-song EPs, The Old Sound of Music, Vol. 1 and The Old Sound of Music, Vol. 2 These two collections are "recommended for anyone who feels that time, popularity and Don Was has watered down Old Crow Medicine Show, The Hackensaw Boys bring the Appalachian string band roots with punk rock flowers hard and raw." The albums resulted from recording sessions held at the Sound of Music studios in Richmond, Virginia. They were mastered by Grammy award winner Charlie Pilzer. As with Look Out! in 2007, all songs were engineered by Bryan Hoffa, archival audio restoration specialist at the Library of Congress. The titles, bestowed by Ferd Lionel Moyse IV were inspired by the fact that these were the last two recording projects to come out of the old Sound Of Music facility, which has recently moved to a new building in Richmond.

''Charismo'' (2016)

The group released Charismo through Free Dirt Records in 2016, after almost a decade without putting together a studio album. Larry Campbell produced. Glide Magazine said of the album that the group take "a tack similar to that of Old Crow Medicine Show, the Punk Brothers, The Howlin' Brothers and other modern outfits that draw from the past to make an impression in the present." They went on to say that theirs is "a sound once heard on back porches throughout the heartland, now brought to life with the stirring enthusiasm of would-be rock stars performing for appreciative audiences."
New Material - Lineup Change
In January of 2018, the band saw the exit of Ferd Moyse and Brian Gorby, to focus on family and other musical projects. Face to face with the possibility and fear of having to hang it all up, David recruited long-time friend and former band-mate from a previous project, Beau Dodson for charismo, drums/percussion and vocals. Chris Stevens, who had sat in on bass for Hackensaw in the past, was brought on full time, adding bass to the line-up once again after a stint without. To round out the new line-up, Chris recommended his astonishingly talent band-mate and pal Caleb Powers for fiddle and vocals. In December of 2018 the reformed team entered the studio to record a five song EP, due to be released in the spring of 2019.

Charismo (the instrument)

A distinctive aspect of the Hackensaw live-performance experience is the percussion instrument known as a "charismo". Invented and played by former band member Justin "Salvage" Neuhardt, who also performed on spoons and the musical saw, it is described as "a home-made tin can contraption." As founder Sickmen remembers it:
Calvin James Pynn of The Tartan states "Neuhardt's charismo" is the "most notable" of the group's instruments:
In an interview with Scott Simon of N.P.R. Neuhardt himself explains how it came to be:
Brian Gorby, Neuhardt's friend and former bandmate in the percussion-heavy jam-band Humble Sacrifice, has carried on the charismo's tradition in the Hackensaw Boys as their touring percussionist. With funk influences, Gorby uses the charismo to bring a rambunctious flair to the band's old-time style.

Musical style

As former member and founder Bullington puts it "we can play an old folks home in the afternoon and then play for a bunch of punk rockers, or whoever else might still be up and ready for a good time, or some music at midnight. They all seem to enjoy it equally." Fellow founder Sickmen claims "the original intent of the band.. was to bring old-time Appalachian country punk rock." Band member Jesse "Baby J." Fiske questions the importance of assigning a specific style: "We're not really an old-time band either. As long as we speak to someone, it doesn't really matter what the genre is." The group largely performs original material, with a traditional feel. As former member Shawn Galbraith, banjo player, puts it: "We play original material provided by different members of the band. There are some traditional elements to our sound for sure, but we always try to maintain some uniqueness." "I don't think many people would call us a traditional oldtime band," states bandleader David Sickmen: "I'd say our songs are about ninety percent originals. Then we have some old-time songs we play in our own way."

Awards, honors, distinctions

Current line-up as of March 2020:
LPs:
EPs:
Music Videos: