Ten Tracks presents A Hawk and a Hacksaw live, April 17th 2011

A Hawk and a Hacksaw at The Caves

From their home in deepest Albuquerque, New Mexico, A Hawk and A Hacksaw present Cervantine, a brand new album out now on  on their new self-run label L.M Dupli-cation.  The album was Rough Trade's album of the week as soon as it was released (this month).

We are very lucky to be presenting A Hawk and a Hacksaw live at The Caves, Edinburgh on Sunday 17th April, as part of their tour promoting the album.

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Early bird tickets :: £10

Bring along your Paypal confirmation of payment email to secure you entry on the night

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If you want to get the album for a listen before the night, here it is via Rough Trade's shop:

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Cervantine is the finest document yet of the roving spirit of A Hawk and a Hacksaw: the record that gloriously connects their fascination with the folk and gypsy groups of former Yugoslavia, Greece and Romania to their original base in the desert plains of the American Southwest.

There is a tone and a swagger about these recordings that points to the band's total fluency within their own special, self-carved musical language: the vibrant sound of an American band whose geographical and cultural travels have come to bear on their already distinctive music, to unique and dazzling effect. Cervantine is where A Hawk and A Hacksaw really take fight.

The album follows a series of rapturously greeted albums, tours and collaborations in which the core AHAAH duo of Jeremy Barnes (accordion, percussion) and Heather Trost (violin) have intrepidly explored their love of Eastern European musics, including recording in remote Romanian villages and basing themselves in Budapest (where they put together all-star Hungarian folk group Hun Hangár Ensemble for a limited-edition EP and tour), as well as touring the world finely balancing raucous shows at folk clubs and Turkish restaurants with grand blow-outs alongside Wilco, Portishead and Beirut among others.

Upon moving back to the US after their adventures, AHAAH recorded Cervantine live at their studio in Albuquerque between two domestic tours.

With the 20th century having brought the influence of Spanish and Mexican music to Eastern European gypsy folk, Cervantine celebrates the reflected resonance of this influence in modern-day New Mexico: guest spots from a score of local musicians (see CD credits) augment this feeling of the band's music returning home to roost. There are also key contributions from Chris Papalazerscu Hladowski and his sister Stephanie, immensely talented siblings from Bradford, UK via Poland, who have both figured prominently in the renewal of the AHAAH sound.

Chris (who plays bouzouki with raucous psychedelic relish) featured on previous album Deliverance , and spent time with Barnes and Trost in Budapest, wowing them with Youtube clips of saz players from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, while Stephanie's singular voice colours album standouts Mana Thelo Enan Andra, Cervantine and the Turkish classic Uskudar, bringing shades of Bulgarian choral music as well as Turkish and Greek folk styles. Meanwhile, original composition Espanola Kolo probably best represents the Spanish/Mexican impression on Serbian brass music that A Hawk and A Hacksaw have embraced - an homage to the extraordinary New Mexico town of Espanola and a Yugoslav Kolo dance, designed for long nights of drinking and dancing.

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