"Just when you thought you'd heard all the good music - Chuck Hawthorne."
- Ramblin' Jack Elliott
After spending 21 year as a Marine, Hawthorne retired and entered a second act of his life as traveling singer/ songwriter. A chance encounter at an airport in Chicago with renowned singwriter, Ray Bonneville led to the two of them collaborating on his debut record, Silver Line. The record and subsequent touring has garnered Chuck the eye of the national media and a growing fan base. Over the past few years Chuck has played stages all over the US as well as the UK, sharing the stage along the way with the likes of Michael Martin Murphey, Rambling Jack Elliott, Adam Carroll and Richard Dobson.
The 11 songs on Chuck’s debut album, Silver Line, were produced by Ray Bonneville at Shine Studios in Austin, Texas, and feature a roster of stellar guest musicians including Eliza Gilkyson and Gurf Morlix. The record recently caught the attention of Michael Martin Murphey, who heard Chuck play at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. Murph has since invited Chuck to play shows with him at the Saxon Pub in Austin and the Franklin Theatre in Nashville, and along with Bonneville, he has become a musical mentor to Chuck.
"...best songwriter I've heard in 20 or 30 years."
- Michael Martin Murphey
“Hawthorne's voice is a hybrid of Eddie Vedder's and Gordon Lightfoot's, his instrumentation spare like Townes Van Zandt, and his songs...are deliberate workaday tales reminiscent of Nebraska-era Springsteen or James McMurtry."
- Mike Seely, No Depression
www.chuckhawthorne.com