Hackensaw Boys over for a tour starting at the end of the week

Before string bands were a “thing” in popular culture, there was the Hackensaw Boys. Before The Avett Brothers were selling out arenas, before Mumford & Sons were becoming the biggest band in music in a given year, before everybody and their brother was growing a beard and wearing suspenders and playing in jug bands, the Hackensaw Boys were mixing bluegrass and old time music with a punk attitude, and reshaping what a modern old school string band could sound like.

For almost two decades, the Hackensaw Boys have plowed the asphalt bringing their raw, gritty American vernacular sounds to the music halls and streets across the world. Twenty years later, the group continues their burning hot vision of American roots music into a new age, fueled as much by a rowdy punk spirit as by the traditional masters that first inspired them.

The music began in 1999 when four friends from Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley found their collective ways to the roots music hub of Charlottesville. They didn’t waste time getting going, playing a show on the street the day of their first practice. The group let the good times roll and started adding like-minded people until their ranks reached twelve players for their first US tour. As with the folk and punk traditions which form the foundation of their sound, they’ve always operated more as a collective than a band. Helmed by founding member David Sickmen, the Hackensaw Boys have always had more in common with bands like The Clash, who celebrated the working class roots of their own music, than they did with an overly-polished Nashville mainstream sound.

Starting next week the Hackensaw Boys are over for a tour:

30/03: Schijndel, NL - Paaspop
31/03: Groningen, NL - Vera
03/04: Oberhausen, DE - Gdanska
04/04: Amersfoort, NL - Fluor
05/04: Middelburg, NL - Spot
06/04: Dedemsvaart, NL - De Gashouder
07/04: Amen, NL - Cultureel Café de Amer
08/04: Eindhoven, NL - Americana Mondays
09/04: Cologne, DE - Die Kantine
10/04: Haarlem, NL - Patronaat
12/04: Alkmaar, NL - Blue Heart Festival
13/04: Hengelo, NL - Heartland Festival
14/04: Venlo, NL - Down By The River