Premiere: Greg Hawks witnesses truth and peace with ‘One Light’
Americana musician recalls a profound dream he had after his father’s death.
The loss of a loved one carves such an unimaginable pain in your chest. It’s a transitory moment from the here and now to the greater beyond, and we can never be fully prepared for it. I watched my father die, and despite our thorny relationship, I’ve never been the same. And I know I’m not alone in that experience. It’s an inevitable flash of severe and brutal trauma we all must face sooner or later, and at the core, it’s a crucial one. Americana man Greg Hawks underwent his own lift-altering tragedy when his father passed away quite unexpectedly 17 years ago.
With his new song “One Light,” exclusively premiering today, the Chapel Hill native and legacy performer confesses a dream he had the night of his father’s death. It’s an encounter in the wee hours, delicate but grounded, and one he’s not soon to forget. “Only 64, [my father] had not been feeling well and was headed to the doctor for more tests. He died in his sleep April 1, 2001. Profound events such as this change you in a fundamental way,” says Hawks to B-Sides & Badlands.
He was understandably shattered by the experience and was thrown into a spiraling, cataclysmic whirlwind of uncertainty and his attempts in “finding any meaning to existence in a world without my dad,” he continues. “The first night back home from the funeral, I had a hard time falling asleep, despite being physically and emotionally exhausted. I would wake from a deep sleep, my mind in a fog, and then feel a sharp pain to my core when I remembered what just happened. Eventually, I let go and finally dozed off.”
Hours later, his simple dreams morphed into a kind of prophetic reassurance of truth and love. “I had the most memorable dream I’ve ever had. It was very mysterious ⎯⎯ more of an extended view of one vision, as if through the eye of a camera lens. The view was breathtakingly beautiful ⎯⎯ an endless, immense, flat desert horizon enveloped by a huge, expansive, infinite sky,” he recalls in great, magical and titanic detail. “And then off in the furthest distance, in the middle of the very end of this gorgeous horizon, appeared a single small tree enveloped in this one glowing circle of light. It sparkled and shimmered like a star with an otherworldly beauty, unlike anything I’d ever seen before or since. I just remember staring at it and feeling this profound sense of warmth, love and the feeling of being lifted up as if I were flying. It was spiritually comforting in a way beyond earthly description. It was one of those dreams that you wish could last forever.”
A sign of his father’s peace from the ether, that vision bestowed upon Hawks much-needed relief from the pain. It’s not necessarily gone for good, but the room you make for it is easily bound and packed away for safe keeping. Musically, “One Light” floats mid-air, as if a dream-like specter itself, owed to the smooth combination of gently-strummed strings and fluffy percussion. “I wanted to create something ethereal, pretty, and hypnotic,” he says. “I was essentially trying to create a soundscape that matched the otherworldly beauty of the dream that inspired the song.”
“One Light” is the latest taste of Hawks’ upcoming new record I Think It’s Time (October 12), which bounds far beyond his personal sphere to larger world issues in the wake of Trump’s presidency. The musician pushes and pulls and cuts and bleeds onto the record, and even 30 years into his prolific career, he continues to uncover new layers to his humanity in swift and undeniable ways. Mixer, producer and friend Chris Stamey (Whiskeytown, Caitlin Cary) makes a long-awaited return to the fold (he previously worked on Hawks’ 2001 debut album Fool’s Paradise on YepRoc Records), and what results in an album of timely introspections that are both violently real and hopeful.
Listen below:
Photo Credit: YorkWilsonPhoto.com
