Kevin’s 2002 recordings at his cousin Shawn Hopkins’ Danville basement studio.
The first track is 200 Days, which Kevin (lead vocals & rhythm guitar) wrote with Shawn (drums & keyboard) and Jody Rising (lead guitar & backup vocals). The second track is Johnny L.V., which features only Kevin on vocals & guitar.
I wish there were pictures of the recording or at least a picture of the three of them together… back in the pre-cell days.
Kevin wrote “There’s No Way” in 1994. It was among the first songs he’d ever written.
Here’s an audio version of it from one of our “kitchen concerts” in 2010:
And here are the lyrics:
There's No Way
by Kevin Hawke
You've never lost the sparkle I see in your eyes.
As the months have slipped away, I've come to realize
I can't predict the future, but there's one thing that I know:
There's no way in my heart I'll ever let you go.
I've never cared for anyone the way I do for you.
I could not forget you if I wanted to.
I'll never care for anyone like I do for you, I know.
There's no way in my heart I'll ever let you go.
Giving up is not my practice.
I hope you can understand
That being without you
Will never be in my plan.
If it takes until the end of time,
I must be sure that you know:
There's no way in my heart I'll ever let you go.
Sometimes it feels like a dream that we ever met.
To God for this I'll always be in His debt.
If it's what you want, I'll leave, but I want you to know:
There's no way in my heart I'll ever let you go.
Giving up is not my practice.
I hope you can understand
That being without you
Will never be in my plan.
If it takes until the end of time,
I must be sure that you know:
There's no way in my heart I'll ever let you go.
We uploaded this video to YouTube back in December, but for some reason it never got posted here.
Written in 2002, “Music Man” may be Kevin’s biggest hit. It’s a beautiful song of grief over a lost loved one and the friends and fans who make it all okay.
Kevin says he often has people asking him whether it’s about his own life. In fact, he wrote it about his uncle Roy Norton, himself a popular local musician, just after Roy had recently lost his mother and suffered an accident at work.
Our 1st Set
1) Funny How Time Slips Away
2) Natural Woman
3) Highgate Shuffle/Baby, What You Want Me to Do
4) Every Day (Jo Song #1)
5) Willin’
6) Helpless
7) Love, Please Come Home
8) On The Verge
9) Every Picture (They Say You)
10) All Around the World
11) Desperado
12) Working Man Blues
13) Summertime
14) Sitting on Top of the World
Our 2nd Set
1) Ready For Love
2) Son of a Preacher Man
3) 200 Days
4) Shoot For The Moon
5) Stormy Monday
6) Shooting Star
7) Danglin’
8) My Little Girl
9) Me and Bobby McGee
10) Moondance (with Glenwood Smith)
11) You Can Close Your Eyes
12) Why Can’t You See (a Glenwood Smith original, with Glenwood Smith)
Thanks to everybody who came to see us!
Now that the Bistro is going to instrumental music for the inside season, we need a new place to play. We really want to keep this once-a-month thing going!!!
The week before last, my brother Paul and his family were in town from near Tulsa, OK, for the first time in five years or more. Getting to spend time with them was great for all of us. All of our kids have grown up so much, and our younger sons were so young back then that they barely remembered it.
Paul’s older son Caleb, who’ll be 16 in September, has been singing like crazy in school choir, musicals, and talent shows. He and his mom Rebecca came to see Kevin and me sing at Frank’s that Saturday. (See picture above.) When we were hanging out at my parents’ house the next day, we begged Kevin to get his guitar and play some music.
So while we talked and laughed and worked that crazy Virginia puzzle with Caleb’s younger brother Sammy, Kevin played and talked Caleb into singing with us. Caleb’s an Eagles fan, so Kevin tried to find a couple of songs that he knew (though he’d never played them before) and that Caleb was familiar with. We tried to record it, but it disappeared from my phone. GAH!
The next day, we got him to do it again, so we could get a decent recording. I used the H2 recorder, but something happened evidently, because it recorded at a very low volume. I’ve been using that thing for years and have never had this problem. Thankfully, I was able to boost the levels without too much loss in Audacity. It’s still a little bit too low, but you can definitely hear how good Caleb is. 🙂
We recorded three songs. I’m ready to post the first two today:
Atticus went with us and enjoyed his hot dogs (ketchup only, as usual) and playing Plants Vs. Zombies 2 on his tablet. Kevin and I had dinner after we played, too. They had a big grill set up on the patio for hamburgers and hot dogs, but I ordered a chicken wrap from the kitchen.
I’m not exactly raving about the food, but it was okay, and everyone was very nice and helpful, although the food ordering and paying-for process wasn’t running as smoothly as it could.
We got to hear some other musicians play, including a solid set by Little Stuey and the Strangers (our friends Mike, Kristie, and Stuart), but we left pretty early to get Attie in bed, still way past his regular bedtime. And we got to talk to a lot of other good friends, as well. 🙂
Kevin and I played a set during our good friends Little Stuey and the Strangers‘ show this past Saturday night at the grand opening party for Frank’s new patio.
He spent hours meticulously molding this fabulous set list, which I wrote on paper big enough for us to see on stage … and then I proceeded to brazenly switch it all up during the actual set, hence the scratched-out titles and renumbering mess I made afterward.
Kevin said he didn’t mind at all, but he has pointed out repeatedly that his original set would have been just fine without any alterations. 😛
We got a lot of compliments on our set. I think “Son of a Preacher Man” went over the best of all, but if you were there and don’t mind commenting, I would love to hear it! Kevin was awesome with his black hat, Mr. Trilby, on; he even made a few comments, which he rarely does. (We have that in common. :/)
Stuart, Mike, and Kristie sounded great, as usual, and had the crowd dancing and singing along. At one point, Dolly and her friend even had a two-person conga line going on. LOL
Ooh! And Kristie let me come up at the end of the night and sing “White Rabbit”! That was fun!!
Overall, it was a fun night with friends … and family, too! My sister-in-law Rebecca and nephew Caleb came with us until after our set, since they were in town (with my brother Paul and other nephew Sammy) from Oklahoma. 🙂
Ooohhhhh…and a special surprise: We haven’t officially announced it yet, but we booked our first actual show: Saturday, August 9, at the Golden Leaf Bistro from 6:30 to about 10! We asked Mike and Kristie Strange to alternate sets with us that night, and hopefully we’ll be doing some collaborations, as well. 🙂
Last night, we played a set in the middle of Norm Aquilo’s Golden Leaf Bistro show. Great place out on the patio! We were also able to enjoy Norm playing with his old friend, Mike Meadows, who plays with Taylor Swift.
We ended up playing all originals except one, but they seemed to go over pretty well. The owners are interested in getting us to come back and play, but they definitely would like more covers. 🙂
That’s a Notes entry on Kevin’s iPhone, but since we’re synced, it’s on mine, too. 🙂
