The High Hawks Release Debut Album

Jun 11, 2021

Friends from Leftover Salmon, Railroad Earth, Hard Working Americans, And More Join Hands And Take Flight As The High Hawks

Debut album The High Hawks out now via LoHi Records

“A breezy bit of jam-rock that extolls the pleasures of music and togetherness.” -Rolling Stone

There’s nothing quite as freewheeling and fun as calling up a few buddies to get together and play music, creating a bond, and, if the stars align, walking away with a song or two. Now imagine if the friends were tenured professional touring musicians who’ve just never quite had the chance to all be in the same room at the same time. That’s exactly how the newly formed, feel-good Americana collective, The High Hawks, came to be.

The High Hawks – Vince Herman (Leftover Salmon), Tim Carbone (Railroad Earth), Chad Staehly (Hard Working Americans),  Adam Greuel (Horseshoes & Hand Grenades), Brian Adams (DeadPhish Orchestra), and Will Trask (Great American Taxi)—have maintained a generation-spanning presence at the forefront of the roots music scene for over two decades, and are now flying together under the banner of good, old fashioned fun and friendship.

Their debut album The High Hawks was released today via LoHi Records. Watch the brand new video for “Fly High” here and purchase The High Hawks in digital form, on CD, or on a limited 180g blue vinyl record at the LoHi Records store.

Singing a Mountain Song

The baker’s dozen of songs that make up The High Hawks have the strong identity and cohesiveness of a band three records into their career. The summery, fiddle-infused opener “Singing a Mountain Song,” with its self-referential line – Soaring like a high hawk across this mountain top – acts as a kind of mission statement for the whole collection.

There’s a lot of good feeling and optimism in these grooves, from the celestial cowboy vibe of “White Rider” and the revved-up Cash rockabilly of “Bad Bad Man” to the catchy, sauntering “Do Si Do,” which sounds like a great lost Grateful Dead track, the spare emotional cover of Woody Guthrie’s “Fly High,” and “Just Another Stone,” a moving ode to love’s redemptive power.

Throughout, the creative hand-offs between four songwriters and four distinct singers all come together to channel influences from bluegrass to folk to reggae to cosmic Americana into a singular, appealing voice. “These songs wouldn’t sound like High Hawks songs if it was just one of us playing them,” Greuel says. “When it all comes together, there’s a sound.”

Soulful and Soul-Nourishing

Following a run of shows in June—and as touring, in general, is starting to wind back up—The High Hawks have been excited to get these new, feel-good songs out in front of a live audience.

“There’s a lot of stuff on this record that’s soulful and soul-nourishing,” says Carbone. “That’s what I get out of it. So I hope that people who listen will get something similar—a replenishment and a nurturing of the soul.”

And that’s something that, after all these years of making music and touring the world, all of the band members are grateful for—as the outro of “Heroes & Highways” exclaims, they “Still got a soul!”

Rocky Mountain fans can catch The High Hawks on the final date of their June tour schedule. They’ll be performing in Vail, Colorado, at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater on June 22nd.

The High Hawks In The Press:

Rolling Stone included “Sing A Mountain Song” in their “music picks of the week” round up, calling it “a breezy bit of jam-rock that extolls the pleasures of music and togetherness.”

Glide Magazine praised the band’s genre-busting mix of influences saying, “The result is a sound that exudes the musical chemistry of these jamming compadres, and they manage to bottle the energy of a live performance into this studio recording to make for one hell of a fun record,” before an interview with Carbone and Herman.

Jambase shared a beautifully heartfelt essay from Staehly about his late friend and bandmate, Neal Casal, and his story behind writing “When The Dust Settles Down” for Casal.

Relix debuted the album in its entirety yesterday and shared thoughts from Carbone and Greuel about how it feels to play music with dear friends.

American Songwriter about the album’s radio single “Singing A Mountain Song,” calling the group a “supergroup of songwriters.”

Ventura Seat Portable Recliner Chair by Picnic Time

About The High Hawks

With close to 150 years of collective experience as professional touring musicians, newly-formed feel-good Americana collective The High Hawks—Vince Herman (Leftover Salmon), Tim Carbone (Railroad Earth), Chad Staehly (Hard Working Americans),  Adam Greuel (Horseshoes & Hand Grenades), Brian Adams (DeadPhish Orchestra) and Will Trask (Great American Taxi)—have maintained a generation-spanning friendship at the forefront of the roots music scene for over two decades. Their debut album The High Hawks is available via LoHi Records.

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