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With a voice that echoes the spirit of Neil Young and a profound connection to the desert southwest of New Mexico, AJ Woods brings a personal touch to his music. Hawk is Listenin’ is a diverse collection of songs that reflect his deep understanding of the region. It’s not about a single sound but a rich tapestry of musical forms that he has mastered, from acoustic and electric guitars to bass and harmonica. His collaborations with friends from bands like the Sir Douglas Quintet, Beirut, Neutral Milk Hotel, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw add depth and soul to his music.
Having spent his entire life living in and around Albuquerque, AJ Woods understands the rhythms and rhymes of the West, both old and new (the video to “Hawk is Listenin’, watch below, shows Woods skateboarding along the cement of a long retention drain). The track, filled with delicate acoustic guitar on one hand and distorted electric guitar on the other, illustrates the dichotomy of a world where the forces of the natural world, which we cannot master, are in conflict.
Covering Gallup, New Mexico, a song by Jimmy Stallings (JJ Light), who plays bass here, you hear the shared nature arising from the fact that each lost a parent during childhood: “Jimmy deals with a hard topic in such a raw way…getting relief from something so heavy.” The song swings with a pulse and guitar that sounds like it could be coming from the Grateful Dead, especially as it fades out in a crazed repeating of the title as it whirls like a dervish.
Gila and Middle Fork are deeply personal songs, born from AJ Woods’ experiences during backpacking trips into the Gila wilderness. Gila, a predominantly acoustic track, recounts moments with his father and the subsequent loss of his mother. Middle Fork, a full band track, narrates a night spent on the wildest stretch of the Rio Grande, echoing the stories of Geronimo and Billy the Kid. These songs, filled with a touch of sadness, capture the essence of beginnings and endings that permeate the vastness of the region, its native people, and those who came later.
At times wild and unruly, AJ Woods has found a sense of the method and madness that haunts the soul. Hawk is Listenin’ explores the haunted moments of those who have lived in this part of the world. More than a lesson in another way of life, it looks inside the soul, pouring out the music that infects its inhabitants.
Hawk is Listenin’ (20th September 2024) Stone Poem in collaboration with Perpetual Doom
Bandcamp: https://perpetualdoom.bandcamp.com/album/hawk-is-listenin
