Over a decade ago, KP Hawthorn and a few of her friends/musicians decided to put together CALICO the band, a vehicle for their love of the California Country sound. KP, Jaime Wyatt, and Manda Mosher co-wrote several songs and the band’s debut, Rancho California, came out in 2014. Fast forward those ten years and KP achieved success along several paths: founder of Mulekick Records, documentary producer, and half of the Americana duo (with husband Johnny) The HawtThorns. She decided to reinterpret several of those early tunes and, along with a couple of new compositions and a surprising cover, they became the basis for her solo debut album, Til the Glitter End.
Several of the songs lean more toward rock ballads than their original interpretations. High Road could be the soundtrack for a modern gunslinger hero. Besides showcasing Hawthorn’s soaring vocals it features Rosie Flores on guitar. San Andreas Shake has a similar lo-fi guitar sound, this time provided by husband Johnny. It’s a fun take on our west coast geological phenomena from the perspective of the fault line. Fool’s Gold is a ballad you can enjoy at multiple levels, from the lure of stardom to life on the road to the challenge of relationships.
Another one of those reimagined cuts is The Runaway Cowgirl. It’s a classic tale of girl-meets-boy and together they head off into the sunset. This version is a lot folkier, with none of the pedal steel of the original. Lone Ranger hews a little closer to the first recording in a tale of leaving the comforts of home in order to pursue a dream. When Hawthorn sings, “I made myself a promise not to regret what I can’t change”, you realize where the song title comes from. In that same storyline vein is the surprising cover in the record, a resplendent take on the Page/Plant classic Going To California.
I’ve no doubt many musicians with a big back catalog would like to recast some of their early work in a new light. Yet that’s what made them who they are, and fans can be notoriously fickle to new arrangements. For KP Hawthorn, the demise of that first band and her subsequent journey into new areas loosened those shackles and gave her the freedom to make the songs hers on Till the Glitter End. Don’t miss them this time around.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.