Arkansas native in Canadian music scene

Ronnie Hawkins, a brash rockabilly star from Arkansas who turned a patron of the Canadian music scene after transferring north and recruiting a handful of native musicians later generally known as the Band, has died.

His spouse Wanda confirmed to The Canadian Press that Hawkins died Sunday morning after an sickness. He was 87.

“He went peacefully and he seemed as good-looking as ever,” she stated by phone.

Born simply two days after Elvis Presley, the Huntsville native mates referred to as “The Hawk” (He additionally nicknamed himself “The King of Rockabilly” and “Mr. Dynamo”) was a hell-raiser with an enormous jaw and a stocky construct.

He had minor hits within the Fifties with “Mary Lou” and “Odessa” and ran a membership in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the place acts included such early rock stars as Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Conway Twitty.

“Hawkins is the one man I ever heard who could make a pleasant horny music like ‘My Gal is Pink Sizzling’ sound sordid,” Greil Marcus wrote in his acclaimed ebook about music and American tradition, “Thriller Practice,” including that “The Hawk” was alleged to “know extra again roads, again rooms and backsides than any man from Newark to Mexicali.”

Hawkins didn’t have the items of Presley or Perkins, however he did have ambition and a mind for expertise.

He first carried out in Canada within the late ’50s and realized he would stand out way more in a rustic the place homegrown rock nonetheless barely existed. Canadian musicians had typically moved to the U.S. to advance their careers, however Hawkins was the uncommon American to attempt the reverse.

With drummer and fellow Arkansan Levon Helm, Hawkins put collectively a Canadian backing group that included guitarist-songwriter Robbie Robertson, keyboardists Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel and bassist Rick Danko. They turned the Hawks, educated within the Hawkins faculty of rock.

“When the music obtained slightly too far out for Ronnie’s ear,” Robertson advised Rolling Stone in 1978, “or he couldn’t inform when to return in singing, he would inform us that no person however Thelonious Monk might perceive what we have been enjoying. However the massive factor with him was that he made us rehearse and apply lots. Usually we’d go and play till 1 a.m. after which rehearse till 4.”

Robertson and mates backed Hawkins from 1961-63, placing on raucous exhibits round Canada and recording a howling cowl of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” that turned one in every of Hawkins’ signature songs.

However Hawkins wasn’t promoting many data and the Hawks outgrew their chief. They attached with Bob Dylan within the mid-’60s and by the tip of the last decade have been superstars on their very own who had renamed themselves the Band.

Hawkins, in the meantime, settled in Peterborough, Ontario, and had a handful of high 40 singles there, together with “Bluebirds within the Mountain” and “Down within the Alley.”

He admittedly didn’t sustain with the newest sounds — he was horrified the primary time he heard Canadian Neil Younger — however within the late Nineteen Sixties he befriended John Lennon and his spouse, Yoko Ono. They stayed with Hawkins and his spouse, Wanda, and three youngsters whereas they have been visiting Canada.

“At that exact time, I believed I used to be doin’ them a favor,” he later advised the Nationwide Submit. “I believed the Beatles have been an English group that obtained fortunate. I didn’t know lots about their music. I believed Yoko’s was (foolish). To today, I’ve by no means heard a Beatle album. For 10 billion {dollars}, I couldn’t title one music on ‘Abbey Street.’ I’ve by no means in my life picked up a Beatle album, and listened to it. By no means. However John was so highly effective. I favored him. He wasn’t a kind of hotshots, you already know.”

Hawkins additionally saved in contact with the Band and was among the many company in 1976 for the all-star, farewell live performance that was the premise for Martin Scorsese’s documentary “The Final Waltz.”

For a couple of moments he was again in cost, grinning and strutting beneath his Stetson hat, calling out “massive time, massive time” to his former underlings as they tore by way of “Who Do You Love.”

Moreover “The Final Waltz,” Hawkins additionally appeared in Dylan’s movie “Renaldo and Clara,” the big-budget fiasco “Heaven’s Gate” and “Hi there Mary Lou.” A 2007 documentary about Hawkins, “Alive and Kickin,’” was narrated by Dan Aykroyd and featured a cameo from one other well-known Arkansan, Invoice Clinton.

Hawkins’ albums included “Ronnie Hawkins,” “The Hawk” and “Can’t Cease Rockin,’” a 2001 launch notable for Helm and Robertson showing on the identical music, “Blue Moon in My Signal.” Helm and Robertson have been now not talking, having fallen out after “The Final Waltz,” and recorded their contributions in separate studios.

Over time, Hawkins mentored quite a few younger Canadian musicians who went on to profitable careers, together with guitarist Pat Travers and future Janis Joplin guitarist John Until.

He obtained a number of honorary awards from his adopted nation, and, in 2013, was named a member of the Order of Canada for “his contributions to the event of the music business in Canada, as a rock and roll musician, and for his help of charitable causes.”