Paste OFA tag here. HUGE THANKS to Tony Magee, Jimmy Jacobs, Laura Muckenhoupt, Katie Barr and all our friends from Lagunitas Brewing Company, the Shinyribs band, Stuart Sullivan, George Reiff , Cary Baker, Al Moss, Ben Hubbird and CD Baby, all the artists on the album and everyone who took time for interviews for the liner notes. Great thanks to Owen Temple, Clay McNeill, James McMurtry, Tamara Saviano, Mandy Brown, Troy Campbell, Marc Harkness, Susanna Clark Atkinson and Richard Skanse, Zach Jennings and all at Lone Star Music for their endless support. Additionally, special thanks to Elizabeth Hawkins, Tina-Michelle Fowler and Nancy Meyer for their ongoing encouragement as well as Ted Hawkins III for being guardian of his father’s guitar all these years and for providing the instrument for our album cover photo. Thank you to Mark Flanagan and everyone at Largo in Los Angeles for hosting our cover photo shoot. Sound recordings © Eight 30 Records Publishing by Wixen Publishing except where noted Paste OFA tag here. PEACE AND Just to have somebody to hold me ed Hawkins simply sang with soul ablaze. After all, the singular singer, who became a cult hero after decades busk- HAPPINESS Both arms wide open and for me EVAN FELKER Gotta fi nd peace and happiness before I die ing in poverty in Venice Beach, California, needed lightning for survival. Gotta fi nd me somebody before I get old “You have to sing like something’s after you,” Hawkins once said. “There’s I need someone to say they need me a force out there that tries to push you out, especially if you’re playing on Even if they don’t mean a word This is a hopeless situation the street. That just makes me more determined.” Boardwalk passersby certainly noticed. I don’t need some stupid someone I no longer wanna see this place T They stopped cold. Listened. Amazed. “A lot of street musicians are really good, but I’m gonna leave this house tomorrow Complaining about something she heard there was something about him that was just pure presence,” says Jon Dee Graham, who Kicking dirt in your momma’s face witnessed Hawkins on the beachfront while recording in Los Angeles three decades ago. I’d marry anybody tomorrow Just to run from the trouble and sorrow I’m leaving in stormy weather “Also, his songs aren’t like anybody else’s. He’s singing in this huge, soulful voice, ‘What Gotta fi nd peace and happiness before I die Just to get myself together do you want from the liquor store? Something sweet? Something sour?’ What? So wholly Gotta fi nd me somebody before I get old Gotta fi nd peace and happiness before I die original.” Imagine blues and country and folk having no dividing lines. Gotta fi nd me somebody before I get old I have only one life before me Gotta fi nd me somebody before I get old The Unstoppable Ted Hawkins won his son Ted Hawkins III says today. “He’d say, Mustn’t worry about this and that voice hard. The Mississippi native lived an ‘Go outside for a minute.’” Then Hawkins So when the thing comes down to leaving inscrutable and itinerant lifestyle, scraping pulled beans from the pantry and leftover I’m the fi rst one to get my hat for drinks and meals, always hardscrabble hamburger meat from the refrigerator for purchase on one freedom or another. and any other scraps he could manage and I’ll eat neck bones and gravy Written by Theodore Hawkins, Jr. Published by Joliet Music (BMI) and Meanwhile, he was periodically discov- whipped up a freewheeling delicacy with- Before I let you drive me crazy Happy Valley Music (BMI) Gotta fi nd peace and happiness before I die ered — most notably, early on by Money out a second thought. “I’d come back in and Gotta fi nd me somebody before I get old Evan Felker: vocals, guitar, harmonica Records (“Baby”) then later by Rounder there’s a four course meal there,” Hawkins Keith Langford: drums, percussion Jeff Brown: bass Records (1982’s unmatched Watch Your III says. “I’d say, ‘What’s the name of this, Now if you love me you got to show me Claude Bernard: accordion Step) and even becoming a minor star Dad?’ He’d say, ‘It’s a dish called ‘Nothing.’ mandolin, harmony vocals Don’t expect for me to skin my knees Kevin Russell: while living in England for a time — just He’d cook a meal and write a song at the I know that you can’t live without me All songs recorded at Wire Recording, to return to his seat on a milk crate by same time.” Then he would write more. But I’ll be so much at ease Austin, Texas, unless otherwise noted. the beach. Setbacks only illuminated his Hawkins eventually achieved his big outlook. “I’d say there’s nothing to eat,” his breakthrough with The Next Hundred Years Paste OFA tag here. WHOLE LOTTA WOMEN STEVE JAMES (Geff en Records, 1994). He toured through- Those earthy and ethereal narratives — out the United States and overseas that year, “Big Things,” “Cold and Bitter Tears,” “I There’s a whole lotta women There’s a whole lotta women says his producer Tony Berg, eating lobster Gave Up All I Had,” “Sorry You’re Sick” and And I think I love them all And I think I love them all All I want one to do dinners, riding in limousines, eff ortlessly “Strange Conversation” only begin the list There’s a whole lotta women And I think I love them all All I want one to do winning crowds and even swapping tunes — are chockablock with personal explora- All I want one to do All I want one to do with songwriting legends Roger McGuinn, tion. Rough edges and wide open arms Is just answer when I call Is just to answer when I call Pete Seeger and Joe South at the Bottom defi ne the landscape. “I’ve got big things to Line in New York City. His future shined do/Too soon my life will be through/Got no There’s a whole lotta women She may be ugly brightly. His voice fi nally would be heard. time to stop and pick up your fl owers/I’ve But I only want one She may be lame His songs would have an audience. got catching up to do,” goes “Big Things.” There’s a whole lotta women But mister let me tell you That don’t mean a thing And then he died. “I’ve got a song to write/I stay up most every But I only want one If I try to get more than one girl night/Creating with hope they’ll life on I just might wind up with none I don’t need a women who think Ted Hawkins — easily the most soulful forever/I’ve got big things to do.” His words She’s pretty cute singer under the sun, a man who delivered strip all fl ash and fl ourish from ambition and There was a saying when I was a child When the time come to cook equal measures grace and gravel with each art. They simply chronicle the man’s heart For every man there must be seven wives She can’t make a can of soup breath and a rightful superstar in any other and soul and half-fi lled bowl. “He makes Now I’m not trying to live up to no book lifetime — departed this earthly plane on beauty out of the beast,” Mary Gauthier All I want one to do is wash and cook There’s a whole lotta women But I think I love them all January 1, 1995. He was fi fty-eight. “At the says. “You hear kindness and compassion in There’s a whole lotta women All I want one to do time of his death, Hawkins remained the his voice, a gentleness for people that draws And I think I love them all All I want one to do greatest singer you’ve never heard,” the you right in. Ted Hawkins songs are undeni- All I want one to do All I want one to do Los Angeles Times obituary read. “Hawkins able, beautiful gifts to the world.” Is just to answer when I call Is just answer when I call clearly was transported somewhere else His genuineness legitimately changed as he sang, and when he became aware of climates. “When I opened for Ted Hawkins I was told for such a long time Written by Theodore Hawkins, Jr. the audience, he seemed dazed: the packed at Largo in Los Angeles in 1989, the fi rst That I should get married And stop running around Published by Ted Hawkins Music (BMI) room applauding wildly, some in tears from thing out of his mouth was, ‘Is everybody But I had a woman who was young and fair Steve James: vocal, resonator guitar the sheer, sad beauty of his songs.” having a good time?’” James McMurtry She had me biting off my nails And pulling out my hair Paste OFA tag here. “Ted Hawkins’ songs and his voice were infectiously WHO GOT MY uplifting to me upon first listen. His unique style, both NATURAL COMB soulful and folkie, has haunted me and taught me so SHINYRIBS much that I have been on a personal mission to tell Who got my natural comb I broke two of those other kind of funny combs the world about this national musical treasure.