Premiere: Bobby Hawk shakes loose the heartache on new song, ‘Long Gone’
The Americana singer-songwriter finally lets his heartache go on a new song.
Our hearts are that of a seaside garden, littered about with various brightly-speckled petals and flaky driftwood, and if perchance we’re kissed by romance, it thrives beyond our wildest imaginations. It’s not unlike the vibrancy and tragically poetic nature of The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, a last rites passage whose own allegorical seeds quickly sprout from both sea and sand. Art remains ever faithful in that way, from the metallic and warm guitar strings chanting as one or a sculptor’s hands carving out a full-bodied figure. Robert Hecht, now known professionally as Bobby Hawk, feels such electricity shoot through his tendons and out of his fingertips, as they coil around trembling chords to drive stakes of heartache squarely in the mud.
On “Long Gone,” premiering today, he navigates the extrication of a relationship’s final days, and the crashing guitar waves plot his escape out onto uncertain, yet altogether liberating, waters. His voice slides across the melodies, creaking but never buckling, and the words pour forth from his very gut. “Don’t give me your handouts, I don’t want ’em / Don’t give me your demands, you can keep ’em,” he smacks his lips on the opening lines, drawing a line in the sand before mounting a ship headed due west. “This love is dead and bond is forced / Unlock the wheel and change the course,” he continues letting every possible emotion slip off his tongue. The storm soon picks up, and the cracks of thunder embed deep and bleeding into the drum kit, dragging the production along in equal punches.
Hecth’s performance is muted, and it could almost seem he’s unfazed by the reality wriggling away out in front of him. But in such a somber place, he then situates a terrible coldness that’ll send shivers along the spine and deceives his stoicism. “Well so long and farewell, nice to know ya / But truth be told, nicer to leave / Don’t kid yourself, I’m gone for good / My roots are free, I’m a walkin’ tree…” he sings. Subtle flourishes swiftly and severely bend together into an erratic confusion of sounds, and that’s when he’s finally willing and capable of letting the beaded strings of his heart finally snap.
“Long Gone,” which heaves and sighs for an imposing six minutes, was initially “written as a bluegrass tune in the style of Chris Stapleton,” Hecht writes to B-Sides & Badlands over email, “but I had to add two drum sets and turn it into a southwestern trance a la Daniel Lanois meets Willie Nelson” [think: “The Maker,” from 1998’s Teatro]. He cultivates wide-reaching influences, and having worked with an array of Americana talent ⏤ including Abigail Washburn and Noam Pikelny ⏤ he strikes out for his solo march and winds through the annals of time. In his way, he collect styles and trinkets of songwriting that ceremoniously seep into his own, and in linking up with producer Ryan Hommel (Amos Lee), the super-charged emotional current shocks and truly impresses.
“Long Gone” is another primer to Hecht’s new album Lights On Kinks Out, expected November 1.
Listen below:
Photo Credit: Chelsea Clarke
