In the wake of his hammy, barn-storming appearance in
the Band's
The Last Waltz, their early employer
Ronnie Hawkins scored one final major-label deal with United Artists and released
The Hawk in 1979. This was a major-label, big-budget affair, featuring big-name support as
James Burton,
Paul Butterfield,
Garth Hudson and
Keith Allison, who produced this record and gave it a slick, shiny feel not dissimilar to such late-'70s rootsy rock albums by
Rick Nelson or revivalists like
Rockpile. That production was an attempt to push
Hawkins onto mainstream pop radio, as was the decision to record the synth-laced, smooth pop of "Shelter of Your Eyes" and Chinn & Chapman's pulsating, bubblegummy "Something's Been Making Me Blue" -- a pretty terrific pop tune that holds its own next to such great soft rock as
Rocky Burnette's "Tired of Toein' the Line," even if it doesn't feel very much like the
Hawk.
Hawkins is enough of a professional to gamely give it his all on these glossy attempts at crossover, but as always, his heart is in roadhouse rock & roll and R&B. Not that it sounds like a roadhouse here, thanks to
Allison's clean contemporary production, but the rest of the record finds
Hawkins singing New Orleans R&B ("Down South in New Orleans,"
Dave Bartholomew's "Sick and Tired"), country with a rock & roll bent (Dallas Frazier's "Elvira," picked up from
Rodney Crowell's recent record that revived it), blues (
Jimmy Reed's "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby") and good old-fashioned rock & roll (
Elvis' take on "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and
Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock"). This may never sound gritty, but it sure sounds fun, particularly to any roots-rockers raised on new wave, or classic rockers with an affection for this clean, punchy sound. In other words, it's not the
Hawk at his best, but it's far from his worst and there's a certain charm hearing him roll with the punches and make an album that fits the sound of contemporary radio in 1979, even though he had to know full well that it would never have really been played there. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine