The Black Hens

 I arrived at the Urban Lounge in Salt Lake City exited to photograph a great young musician who goes by the name of Langhorne Slim. I arrived early only to be told that Langhorne had canceled, I was so bummed out I nearly turned right around and drove the two hour drive back to my apartment but instead I stayed and caught a killer performance by The Black Hens. The The Black Hens are David Williams, Glade Sowards (above), and Jesse Ellis. I love happy accidents, there are no chance meetings. Check out their CD Albuquerque.

David Williams (above)

A few days later Glade and I exchanged a few emails in which we explained a little about the formation  band and how the band got its name;

“We got our start almost by accident.  David and I have played solo and together for years, mostly acoustic  sets at small venues.  We’re friends with the band of annuals and David was touring with them a few years back.  Some of them had to leave the tour a night early, so I met the remaining folks in Albuquerque, NM, to do a gig.  We did half and half, David’s material and my mine, and Jeremi Hanson and Brent Dreiling from BOA backed us up along with some friends of ours from there in town. 

One of them, Jeffrey Richards, had a studio in town where we were staying, so we decided to lay down the songs we’d just performed live. 

We named our band after a song, “old black hen,” by one of our favorite influences, Jason Molina (songs Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co.) and named the CD “Albuquerque” for obvious reasons.

Other influences include:  Neil Young, Neutral Milk Hotel, Will Oldham, The Beatles, Brian Wilson, and, for me at least, brother duos and other harmony acts like Simon and Garfunkel.

David Williams, Glade Sowards (above) both play guitar, bass and share the vocals and provide backing vocals when not singing the lead.

 
Jesse Ellis plays the drums, violin and horns.

Glade Sowards playing bass.

When David had some equipment failure another band immediately loaned him this beautiful Guild guitar , check out the old style Bigsby. 

Jesse Ellis quietly laid down the most amazing rythms.

For a complete set of photos from this great performance see:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gonzoshots/4069817745/in/set-72157622721457856/

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 10:26 pm. It is filed under Live music reviews and tagged with The Black Hens, Urban Lounge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.