Hawktail

press release: Hawktail is the powerhouse stringband made up of premier fiddler Brittany Haas; upright bassist and Madison native Paul Kowert; visionary guitarist Jordan Tice; and mandolin aficionado Dominick Leslie. Together and separately the quartet have been part of projects involving Crooked Still, Punch Brothers, The Duhks, Deadly Gentlemen, Dave Rawlings Machine, Noam Pikelny and Steve Martin, among many others.

Hawktail began as a self-named trio of friends—Haas Kowert Tice. They played together for a decade and as they played their communication grew, allowing innovative and inspiring new directions to take shape. Their first album, You Got This (2004), illustrated their trust in each other as it straddled an array of musical styles—bluegrass interwoven with jazz, Norwegian dance rhythms melding into Appalachian folk. As they continued their journey into the second album Unless they felt something was missing. “We recorded this collection of music first as a trio,” remembers Tice. “Upon listening back to those sessions we kept yearning for more rhythmic energy and robustness in the ensemble sound, so we cut the tunes again with special guests on mandolin and percussion before realizing that what we really wanted was a fourth member to round out the band.”

This is where Dominick Leslie came in and the name changed from Haas Kowert Tice to Hawktail. Leslie was a natural choice, having grown up in the same music scene and collaborated on various projects with all of the band members at one time or other. His mandolin combined with Tice’s guitar balanced out the twin bows of the bass and fiddle, tightening up the sound and filling it out. When the foursome went back in to record Unless the sound came through. “It feels as though this is now a whole band capable of doing anything,” says Haas. “The music of Unless represents hours of creation, founded on our years as close friends. And I think you can hear that,”

Enjoy An Evening with Hawktail at the STOUGHTON OPERA HOUSE on Friday, October 26, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $17 and can be purchased online at www.stoughtonoperahouse.com or by calling the box office at (608) 877-4400, Tuesday-Friday, 9:00 am- 4:30 pm.