A Hawk and a Hacksaw

A Hawk and a Hacksaw
Heather Trost and Jeremy Barnes of A Hawk and a Hacksaw, performing in 2009
Background information
Origin	Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Genres	Folk
Labels	The Leaf Label L.M. Dupli-cation
Website	Official site
Members	Jeremy Barnes Heather Trost

A Hawk and a Hacksaw is an American folk duo from Albuquerque, New Mexico, currently signed to L.M. Dupli-cation. The band consists of accordionist Jeremy Barnes, who was previously the drummer for Neutral Milk Hotel and Bablicon, and violinist Heather Trost. The music is inspired by Eastern European, Turkish and Balkan traditions, and is mostly instrumental. They have released six albums and have toured internationally. The first four albums and an E.P. were released on The Leaf Label and afterwards on their own label L. M. Duplication.

While Barnes lived in Chicago, he found himself in a Ukrainian area with many people from Eastern Europe and began to develop an interest in Romanian folk music.

The band's self-titled first album recorded by Barnes in the south of France, was released in 2002. It provided the soundtrack for the documentary Zizek!, directed by Astra Taylor, which features Slovenian cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek. In March 2005 the band released their second album Darkness at Noon, recorded in England, the Czech Republic and New Mexico. It was during the recording of this album that Barnes met Trost and that the band became a duo.

In 2005, the band met Zach Condon of the band Beirut and gave his bedroom recordings to the small independent label, Ba Da Bing Records. They also played on the first Beirut album, Gulag Orkestar. The band's third record, The Way the Wind Blows (released in 2006), was partially recorded in the small Romanian village of Zece Prajini, and features members of the brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia. In 2007, they were awarded a grant by the CMN branch of the UK Arts Council, which enabled them to do a collaborative tour of the UK with the Hungarian folk group The Hun Hangár Ensemble, coinciding with the release of a collaborative EP. Barnes and Trost lived in Budapest for two years.