Gospel Songs by Lee Hawkins Volume One
“I have never once thought about just being a musician. I don’t think the people in ‘the village’ would have let me do that. I would have never wanted to limit myself to music, but at the same time, I can't do without it.”
Thus, Lee Hawkins, a UW Madison graduate and former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel business reporter, explains his attraction to both music and journalism. The latter provides his full-time income by way of his work for The Wall Street Journal. Music, however, is taking a more prominent place in Hawkins’ life nowadays as he promotes his latest album, Gospel Songs, Volume One.
As with so much art seeing public release in recent months, COVID-19 has played a part in Gospel Songs' inception. “Because of the pandemic, I was unable to go to in-person church services, and I missed the energy of the live choir music,” Hawkins recalls. “I tried watching online services, but it wasn’t the same, and I was disconnected from the spiritual energy that usually fuels me for a week whenever I go to a Baptist service.”
Stoking Creativity
The absence of edifying music performed live, however, stoked creativity that had laid dormant since his dad’s passing not long before the onset of pandemic lockdowns. “A few months into the pandemic, I got a rush of inspiration. It forced me to sit down at the keyboard and bang out some concepts,” Hawkins explains. Just as coronavirus restrictions that put off church fellowship precipitated Hawkins’ desire to make fulfilling music, those same restrictions guided the studio procedures that resulted in using singers other than himself. But that turned out well for all involved.
“I selected the singers by listening to dozens upon dozens of demos. There are so many amazing singers out there, but I found those who seemed to work with my musical approach,” Hawkins recalls of matching voices to Gospel Songs’ 10 tracks. “I gave them the freedom to ad lib and to make the songs theirs. They really appreciated that, because it’s so much easier to work with songwriters/producers who can actually sing out the parts.” Hawkins’ use of falsetto even allowed him to record reference vocal tracks for the female singers he employed
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So, listeners who enjoyed Hawkins’ interpretations of his own songs, last heard in full album fashion on 2015’s Christmas-themed Songs About The Birth of Jesus, won’t have the same opportunity with his latest effort. However, he’s glad to dispel the notion that there is a dearth of singing talent among the current generation. “The prevailing wisdom is that this generation falls short compared to those who came before, but I disagree. I think shows like The Voice and platforms like YouTube have helped a lot of the youth develop incredible voices. The result is whole new generation of people with beautiful voices,” Hawkins says.
Amid the spiritual encouragement he gave himself and hopes to provide others with his Songs, he exclaims that the most enjoyable aspect of recording the alum was, “hearing all the beautiful voices, including the voices of people who aren’t on this album but will likely be featured on a future project.”
The album’s multiplicity of solo singing voices, with none of them being Hawkins’ own, isn’t its only unusual distinction. His songs display theological rigor rarely heard in the soul gospel heard on commercial radio nowadays. That scriptural depth is but another result of last year’s health panic. Because Hawkins wasn’t satisfied with livestream-abetted approximations of Sunday service, “writing these songs was almost like a form of Bible study for me,” he shares. “You will notice that I actually cite Bible verses. When I write music and use the Bible, it allows me to reread verses and stories and think critically about the story I’m trying to tell and the message I’m trying to get across in the song.
“I do it this way because I have heard my fair share of preachers in the Baptist church whose messages are long on style but short on Biblical substance,” Hawkins says, critiquing his own denominational tradition, adding, “They might read one verse from the Bible and then close it and speak for 45 minutes without relating their sermon to the Bible.”
Evangelical Pop
Hawkins’ grievance extends to the evangelical pop scene to which gospel artists such as CeCe Winans and Kirk Franklin occasionally cross over. “We see a lot of that in Christian contemporary music today; some of it is so close to secular that it might as well be secular. Instead of saying ‘God’ or ‘Jesus,’ people are saying ‘He'’ and ‘Him’ and ‘You,’ and frankly, sometimes I don't know if I’m listening to someone serenading their boyfriend or girlfriend or if they are singing about Jesus.”
He realizes that having full-time work in journalism allows him freedom to withstand influence others who rely on singing for their entire living. “I recognize that I have a whole additional career and steady income, and that people who only do music might feel pressured in ways that I am not. But I am really enjoying integrating my music with Bible study, and it's been fun.”
If the Lord is Hawkins’ ultimate inspiration for the music he makes about Him, the native Minnesotan’s run wide as his spiritual focus is narrow. Family came first though. “My dad was a musician and really great singer and guitar player. Unlike many gospel families, we were not discouraged from listening to secular music. So every day, he played Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes, Bobby Womack, Sam Cooke and all of the greats. So, I had that and also my music, which included hip-hop, R&B, rock.”
The confluence of his Hawkins’ home environs and that of one of his youth’s most influential personalities had its bearing, too. “Because I was a Minnesota kid, I was a big fan of Prince and the Minneapolis sound.” And that “village,” of which Hawkins spoke earlier consisted of “all kinds of notable musicians living all around us, and since my dad was a musician, I was around a lot of them.”
Moving On
Moving around and out of the Midwest has broadened Hawkins’ musical appreciation in ways reflected on Songs, too. Primary among his influences outside gospel is contemporary Italian art music composer pianist Ludovico Einaudi, whose Elegy for the Arctic, Hawkins says is “is one of the songs that I listen to when I am getting in the mood to be creative, both journalistically and musically.” Furthermore, “I also am heavily influenced by the New York Philharmonic and anything orchestral. I am known to go to Lincoln Center alone and just sit there in the middle orchestra seats and get lost in the richness of the sound and the music. It might sometimes make me shed a little tear.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, music is a major way by which Hawkins relates to the Almighty. “I connect to God more deeply through music than I do through hearing sermons. In many ways, the way that live classical music makes me feel is like hearing a sermon.”
Apart from his affection for classical music. Hawkins admits to having been impacted by acts spanning a gamut from synth popsters Depeche Mode to neo-soul paragon Maxwell. In so far as his own songwriting, he cites a prominent figure in current mainstream country music, Luke Laird. “I like him because he has eclectic influences ... hip-hop, country, rock, everything. He doesn’t limit himself and that’s how I am. I respect that approach, and those kinds of people are usually found in Nashville.”
Fond of Milwaukee
Though his musicality derives from far-raging sources stylisticly and geographically Hawkins hasn’t forgotten Milwaukee in its makeup, and one of its residents in particular. “Milwaukee is where I met producer George Nash Jr. who I consider to be like the brother I never had. He basically taught me how to listen back to my music, and to keep my production standards extremely high,” he says in praise of the man also linked to the success of Milwaukee native soul singer Eric Benet.
“More broadly, Hawkins offers about the city, “I was able to develop more as a live performer and to build an audience. I got airtime on V100 (WKKV 100.7 FM) and did lots of interviews on ‘The Boogie Bang’ show on WMSE and on the Fox TV affiliate. I did a ton of Summerfest shows, the WAMIs, the Velvet Room, on the show ‘Hotel Milwaukee’ and other venues and sang at Bucks games, all kinds of performances. This is why Milwaukee always means so much to me.”
Among other Milwaukeeans crucial to Hawkins’ musical maturation include his former booking manager, Keith Borkowski, about whom he recalls, “I met him when he was an intern at V100. He was this kid who wanted to do public relations and management, and over the years, I watched him develop from a goldfish into a literal shark. He is still doing a lot in Milwaukee today as an entrepreneur and businessman, and I am super proud of him.” Hawkins also cites Gerald Williamson, an associate of Nash’s about whom the singing business reporter remarks, “He has a really good ear, and his input helps me achieve more clarity in the mixes. Even after moving to New York City, my music still has strong ties to Wisconsin.”
Wisconsinites, nor anyone else, will likely to hear Hawkins perform or head up a tour supporting Gospel Songs any time soon though. “I don’t see myself performing in the near future, but I could see it happening within the next three years. I want to get out of the pandemic. Right now, I am really focused on my journalism work, and it is a very busy time.”
Some of what little spare time he can carve out will probably be dedicated to composing and recording more gospel though. About that that, he beans, “My hope is that I will continue to do more volumes over time if only because it is spiritually fulfilling, and because I can't think of anything that is more fun and positive to do in my life than to make gospel albums featuring some of the best singers and choirs out there.”
