The HawtPlates

One of the last theater pieces/concerts I saw in 2020 was The HawtPlates' Waterboy and the Mighty World. It's billed as "a song cycle, a ghost story, a poetic act of protest that asks us to reimagine American heroism. Inspired by Bass Reeves, the first African American US Marshal, and Odetta Holmes, the voice of the civil rights movement, haunting vocals by The HawtPlates (a performance trio formed by family members Justin Hicks, Kenita Miller-Hicks and Jade Hicks) give rise to a musical landscape pulsing with contemporary and ancestral sounds." It was a total knockout, one of the best shows I've heard this year.

Here's a big chunk of Waterboy from a livestream they did back in April:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHt0-Na4KhU

Unfortunately for my listening tastes, the collective has been more focused on their live experience and hasn't really recorded any studio work. Today, they released Songs for Making It Through Alive in collaboration with The Public Theater. It's on all the streaming services and there's a "visual EP" version on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLDa2fONato
https://open.spotify.com/album/5eJbnYoB7CKhhx1H7A57XK

Highly highly recommended by me. If you're gonna try something new this week, make it The HawtPlates and then lemme know what you think!

(i am not working for/with these folks btw, just very enthusiastic about their art)

this is really cool and i wish i could prevail upon them to change the name of their group

lol, it's too late for that i suppose. i agree it does not exactly entice and i have no idea why they chose that sobriquet.

and thanks for test-driving Matt! you're one of about fifteen or twenty people on this board whose opinion i wanted on this.

yeah i mean it's this really cool film/art/dance/folk/blues thing and it sounds like they should be the Be Sharps from the Simpsons haha