Ted Hawkins only sounds like Ted Hawkins, but Ted Hawkins sounds like a lot. Spanning a range from rock to soul to folk to classic country, he felt no compunction to adhere to a specific genre, but his stripped-down performances have such an unmistakable sound. Born in Mississippi in 1936, Hawkins had a troubled youth, was abused for much of his childhood and illiterate well-past reading age. He began to sing seriously after being sent to reform school at twelve. At age fifteen, he stole a leather jacket and was sent to an adult prison for three years. After his release, Hawkins made his way to Los Angeles and cut a single which made him no money.

Unlike a lot of cult musicians, Hawkins wasn’t completely skipped over by the record labels, it’s just that he was rarely able to hang on to any success that came his way. Downtrodden after his single was a bust, he began busking on Venice Beach in the 1960s, eventually getting addicted to heroin and encountering more legal issues. Producers and labels “discovered” Hawkins over and over again, but he would frequently drop out of public life or disappear completely, often due to addiction or prison.

Hawkins moved to England in 1986 after an invite from celebrity broadcaster Andy Kershaw. Hawkins developed a following there and garnered some real success in Europe and Asia, but was deported back to the US in 1990 by the British Government, ostensibly for drugs. Upon returning to the States, Hawkins was back out of the limelight, and returned to busking on Venice Beach with his trademark milk crate chair and the leather glove he used to protect his injured fretting hand. After much coaxing, Hawkins agreed to make an album for Geffen Records, his first major label release, The Next Hundred Years. Despite his purported dissatisfaction with the addition of studio musicians, the album was a minor success. True to fashion, success-averse Hawkins died of a stroke just a few months after its release.

Due to his erratic life and tendency to record very intermittently, it can be hard to track down Ted Hawkins’ complete works, but the wealth of material he produced is absolutely worth the digging.

“Watch Your Step” has a Little Richard energy to it, and showcases Hawkins’ rock ‘n’ roll chops and dynamic songwriting.
 

 
My personal favorite, “Sorry You’re Sick,” is a religious experience, .
 

 
Hawkins’ rendition of the country standard, “There Stands the Glass” (seen here from a long out of production VHS special, Amazing Grace) is one of the best examples of his ability to interpret a song. (Seriously, it couldn’t be more removed from the 1953 original by Webb Pierce, which I also love, in spite of the fact that Pierce’s voice sounds like a dying cat.)