Originally started by former
Neutral Milk Hotel drummer
Jeremy Barnes,
A Hawk and a Hacksaw released its self-titled debut, on which
Barnes played all the instruments and which explored 20th century American music, in 2004 on Leaf Records. The next year, after enlisting help from tuba player
Mark Weaver, trumpeter
Dan Clucas, and violinist
Heather Trost,
Barnes and the band issued
Darkness at Noon, which was recorded in the U.K. and in
Barnes' native Albuquerque, NM, and delved into both Eastern European and American folk music. Ever the traveler,
Barnes went to Romania for the group's (which was by this time just him and
Trost) third album, where he recorded songs for it with the Gypsy brass band
Fanfare Ciocarlia.
The Way the Wind Blows, which continued
A Hawk and a Hacksaw's tradition of mainly instrumental fare, was then released in 2006. That same year,
Trost and
Barnes moved to Budapest, Hungary where they fully immersed themselves in the Eastern European musical tradition by playing and recording with the local
Hun Hangár Ensemble, resulting in 2007's critically acclaimed EP
A Hawk and a Hacksaw & the Hun Hangar Ensemble and its' 2009 sibling
Deliverance. ~ Marisa Brown, All Music Guide