Ron Hawkins and the Rusty Nails

Ronald James "Ron" Hawkins (born 1965) is a musician from Toronto who is best known as a member of the band The Lowest of the Low. He has also released music as a solo artist, and fronted the bands Ron Hawkins and the Rusty Nails and Ron Hawkins and the Do-Good Assassins. He has produced albums for multiple independent bands and artists and is also an accomplished painter.

The Lowest of the Low sold over 100,000 copies of their two independent releases, Shakespeare My Butt and Hallucigenia. Shakespeare My Butt was voted by Canadians as one of the Top 10 Canadian Albums of all time by Chart magazine. The band broke up in 1994.

After The Lowest of the Low broke up, he formed The Leisure Demons. The Leisure Demons recorded a four-song demo containing songs that were later recorded by his next band, The Rusty Nails. In 1995, Hawkins released his first solo album, The Secret of My Excess. The musicians on this release—Lawrence Nichols (vocals), Christopher Plock (saxophones), Michael Kaler (aka Blitz) (bass)—soon became known as The Rusty Nails, and were joined by Rob Fenton (saxophone, violin), and Mark Hansen (drums). Mark Hansen was a member of the Toronto band Dig Circus, which was mentioned in a Lowest of the Low song. The Rusty Nails spent much of 1996 and 1997 touring in support of The Secret of My Excess. In September 1998 their first album Greasing the Star Machine was released independently, and was followed by Crackstatic in 2000.

The band supported Billy Bragg, The Violent Femmes, Cracker and Big Sugar on tours.

In 2000, The Lowest of the Low reunited. They performed a reunion tour, which resulted in the live album Nothing Short of a Bullet. They later recorded another album, Sordid Fiction, before splitting up again in 2007. The Lowest of the Low continue to play sporadic shows to this day, including a tour celebrating the 20th Anniversary of their most famous album Shakespeare My Butt which culminated at Massey Hall on May 7, 2011.

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