Blues Rock: Richard Hawley's Coles Corner

Fred at Noyes Street Barber Shop in Evanston, Illinois, still gave you the classic treatment—scissors, clippers, and a straight-edged razor shave around your neck with that warm shaving cream. It’s while in Fred’s chair that I grew to appreciate the crooners of yesteryear featured on Fred’s radio station of choice: AM 850 WAIT, playing Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Johnny Mathis.

Richard Hawley’s new release, Coles Corner, begins with those sweeping strings, croon, and jazz-styling of the adult standards that filled Noyes Street Barber Shop. Hawley’s voice and songs envelope you like strong reminiscences of the places and times where you heard those standards—watching the snow fall as Fred cut your hair, curled up in an easy chair at the end of the day, eating dessert in the dim light of Grandma and Grandpa’s kitchen, or late at night in bed as the radio crackled. Hawley’s made something completely new and unique but also an album that is a timeless old friend.

Hawley lands next to Chris Isaak in the Spectrum, because while Hawley is less closely related to Blues Rock than Issak, both tap in those sounds of the past like a David Lynch movie where the styles and music are from the 1950’s but the story is all modern. “Hotel Room” has that slow 50’s doo-wop but has the warm, layered-depth of modern production. “Wait for Me” could be from Isaak’s Baja Sessions. Isaak blended his own songs with many covers on Baja Sessions, and Hawley’s “Wait for Me” feels like it could be a cover but is original.

Beyond the strings, cigarette smoke, and mixed drinks of that yesteryear club, there are also folk elements. “Just Like the Rain” has Hawley’s uptempo croon over a Gordon Lightfoot-like acoustic folk where the guitar accompaniment is quite accomplished but the voice always stays on top of the mix. “I Sleep Alone” brings in those blues a little bit more, even getting a little of the stomp of Langhorne Slim. Hawley leaves England for Texas on “Wading Through the Water,” a classic-sounding country crooner ballad.

Perhaps Fred wouldn’t like everything he heard on Coles Corner, but I’m willing to bet that you replace AM 850 WAIT with Richard Hawley at the barber shop without anyone noticing for awhile. Along the way, fans of adult standards would fine something modern that they enjoy while meeting up with rock ’n’ roll fans who realize Hawley’s taking them back to where all of this music got its start.

Thanks to Richard Hawley and Mute Records for the review CD.