Hackensaw Boys

Formed in 1999 in Charlottesville, Virginia, Hackensaw Boys have existed in a variety of personnel configurations while maintaining a rep as an old-timey string band with a punk edge. The band tours endlessly, has shared stages with De La Soul and Cheap Trick, and served as Charlie Louvin’s touring band for a decade.

Currently, Hackensaw Boys are a quartet consisting of sole remaining founding member, singer-guitarist and songwriter David Sickmen; Caleb Powers on fiddle, banjo and mandolin; Chris Stevens on upright bass; and Sickmen’s son, Jonah, who plays the band’s signature instrument, the charismo, a motley of cans, toys, bells, kazoo and other objects affixed together and draped across the chest like a washboard. This eponymously-titled set captures the ease and acumen with which the band navigate varied material ranging from acoustic folk-pop (‘Mary Shelley’) to swaggering rock‘n’roll (‘The Weights’) and rollicking bluegrass (‘Cages We’re Grown In’).