The Nighthawks

The irreverent Reverend Billy C. Wirtz conducted a series of interviews for Blues Revue with Mark Wenner. Fun stuff, great read, check it out!

Blues Bytes – The Tattoos of the Blues – Part 1

Blues Bytes – The Tattoos of the Blues – Part 2

Blues Bytes – the Tattoos of the Blues – Part 3

“Damn Good Time is one of the best roots records of the year from a bunch of blues-tinged roaddawgs who still know how to rock”. – By Grant Britt

http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/nighthawks-damn-good-time

“… this is as good as anything the band’s ever done and portends even better ’cause there’s an extra something present…” – by Mark S. Tucker

http://www.acousticmusic.com/fame/p07954.htm

“… The Nighthawks are a band that I must admit I have not paid a lot of attention to in the past, but, hey, maybe I have been missing something all these years! This really excellent release by one of the hardest working bands around is a real revelation”. – Phil Wight, Blues & Rhythm (UK)

“This one’s a roots rocker with that blues driven sound that drove the ‘50s into the history books and gave birth to rock and roll as we know it. It’s seminal, it’s organic and The Nighthawks have been doing it for 40 years.”-Robert Carraher

the-dirty-lowdown.blogspot.com

Damn Good Time is NOW AVAILABLE on the Hawks website!

The Nighthawks have announced that their founding leader, Mark Wenner, has undergone successful heart bypass surgery and is expected to make a complete recovery. Because of the operation, Mark will stay off the road for approximately six weeks while he recovers, and the band has postponed the affected dates. The Nighthawks are expected to resume touring the end of May or early June.

Mark Wenner’s condition was diagnosed on Monday, April 9 when he went in for an angiogram/angioplasty and doctors discovered he needed the bypass operation, which was done the following day. Because they caught it early, the doctors feel very confident that his prognosis for a full recovery is excellent.

The Nighthawks debut CD for Severn Records, Damn Good Time, is scheduled for release on May 15, and the band had already scheduled a number of shows around the country to support its release. Damn Good Time is the follow-up to The Nighthawks’ Last Train to Bluesville, which garnered the band its first-ever Blues Music Award from the Blues Foundation as Acoustic Blues Album of the Year in May 2011.

Singer/harmonica player Mark Wenner is the founder of The Nighthawks, whose members also include guitarist Paul Bell, bassist Johnny Castle and drummer Mark Stutso. The new CD features a number of originals and cover songs ranging from blues and soul to rock and rhythm and blues.

Fans can keep track of Mark Wenner’s recovery by visiting the band’s website at www.thenighthawks.com or their Facebook page, where they can also send him get-well wishes: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Nighthawks/366038142091

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Severn Records announces a May 15 release date for Damn Good Time, the label debut from seminal American roots music band, The Nighthawks, distributed in the U.S. by City Hall Records. Damn Good Time is the follow-up to The Nighthawks’ Last Train to Bluesville, which garnered the band its first-ever Blues Music Award from the Blues Foundation as Acoustic Blues Album of the Year in May 2011.

VIEW FULL PRESS RELEASE

Come on out and hang with the Hawks for a rare appearance in Rockville at Dietle’s Tavern on Friday April 20th. Get there early–it will be packed! See you there.

Montgomery magazine features a great cover story on the Nighthawks, six pages of a nice overview with photos.

“I’ve been able to go from something I imagined in my mind . . . to today and what the band sounds like,” says Wenner, reflecting on the band’s implausibly long run.

Check it out:
Montgomery Magazine Sept/Oct 2011

From the Press Release:

Severn Records announces the signing of seminal American roots music band The Nighthawks, who’ve already recorded their first album for the label, with an expected release date in the first quarter of 2012. The two Washington, DC-area based entities unite at a very special time in their history. Severn Records was just announced as the recipient of the 2012 Keeping the Blues Alive Award for Record Label from the Blues Foundation; and The Nighthawks are coming off their first-ever Blues Music Award (also from the Blues Foundation) -  Acoustic Blues Album of the Year – for their Last Train to Bluesville CD, presented in Memphis this past May.

View complete PRESS RELEASE

Accepting the Blues Music Award for "Last Train to Bluesville"

Yes, you did it. Got us to the stage in Memphis. What a night, what a night.

None of us thought we’d actually win, not with the caliber of talent in the Acoustic Album category–heck, in any other category, for that matter. It’s pretty hard to describe what it felt like as we saw (on the big screen, a nanosecond before we heard it) our name read as the winners.

What a rush.

And then we had to calm down, sort of, and get ready to play for that big room full of legendary and becoming-legendary talent. Not to mention for everyone listening live on Sirius XM, like Elaine Stutso, who heard it in the driveway on the car radio. We believe her when she says it sounded awesome.

Johnny's award statue

We missed having Elaine, Holly and Jana there. Johnny took this photo of his award–after he called Jana. It was a moment of deep connection, to families, friends and fans.

We felt the love!

In the 32 years since the inception of the Blues Music Awards (formerly known as the W.C. Handy Awards), legendary Washington, D.C., band The Nighthawks had never even been nominated before in any category. That all changed when the 2011 nominations were announced late last year, as the group’s Last Train to Bluesville album, released in February 2010, was nominated for “Acoustic Album of the Year.” And on May 5 in Memphis at the annual Blues Foundation awards presentation, The Nighthawks heard their name read as the winner. Amid whoops and hollers from the packed audience at the Cook Convention Center, Mark Wenner, Paul Bell, Johnny Castle and Mark Stutso proudly bounded to the stage to accept their first-ever Blues Music Award. Later that night, The Nighthawks performed two songs from the album to the Convention Center audience and to listeners of the live broadcast on Sirius XM’s B.B. King’s Bluesville channel. (See press page for full release)

Wow! We just won three awards at the Wammies — the Washington Area Music Awards. Paul Bell beat fellow nominee Mark Wenner for blues instrumentalist, and the band won best blues group and best blues album for “Last Train to Bluesville.” We cannot thank you enough for all the support you give us.

But now we really need your help to win in the Majors: The Blues Foundation Awards in Memphis. Voting ends at 7:59 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday, March 1. You must be a member of the Blues Foundation to vote. But just $25 makes you part of the international blues family. In addition to sponsoring the Blues Music Awards, the Blues Hall of Fame, the International Blues Challenge and the Keeping the Blues Alive Awards, the foundation’s work includes the HART Fund, which provides the blues community with medical assistance; the Sound Healthcare insurance program; Blues in the Schools; and Generation Blues scholarships. And you get the satisfaction of truly supporting the music you love.
Signing up is easy. Just go to http://www.blues.org/bluesmusicawards/vote.php#ref=members_index.
You’ll get a membership number. Then click on Blues Music Awards in the left-hand corner of the home page, and click on “vote” in the list on the left. OR just go here: http://www.blues.org/bluesmusicawards/vote.php#ref=bluesmusicawards_vote.

“Last Train to Bluesville” is nominated in the acoustic blues category, but don’t forget to go through and voice your choice in all the other categories as well.
The awards will be presented on May 5, and we’ll be there with bells on.
Thank you all!
Mark, Paul, Johnny and Mark

It’s been a long time comin’ but we finally got our new website up and running. We’ll be updating and adding more content as we go, so look around, check it out!