During World of Bluegrass last month in Raleigh, I caught a live set from Hawktail, who were there as an official Bluegrass Ramble Showcase act. Writing at the time of their remarkable virtuosity, especially Paul Kowert’s on the bass, I mentioned a fiddle tune he played out over the body and how well it was received in the packed room where I saw them.
A few weeks later, I discovered this video of the band doing this same number, the old time fiddle tune, Say Old Man Can You Play The Fiddle, which they recorded for the folks at Reverb.com. They also performed a tune of their own composition called In The Kitchen, which highlights Kowert again.
If you follow bluegrass and new acoustic music closely, you’ll already know Kowert as the bassist with Punch Brothers. He is a protégé of Edgar Meyer, with whom he studied at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
He is joined in Hawktail by Brittany Haas on fiddle, who needs no introduction to bluegrass and old time fans, along with Jordan Tice on guitar, and Dominic Leslie on mandolin.
In The Kitchen is one of the tunes on the band’s current album, Unless, available wherever you stream or download music online.
