Daily Discovery: Caleb Hawley, “Little Miss Sunshine”

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Caleb-Hawley
We can’t stop listening to Caleb Hawley. Sure, the Midwesterner-turned New Yorker is a songwriter’s songwriter with a resume that includes awards from the New York Songwriters Circle Contest (2008 and 2009), the John Lennon Songwriting Contest (2009), the Telluride Festival (2010) and the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (2010). But that’s not why we like him.

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We can’t stop listening to songs like ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ because their sharp musicality and clever lyrics are perfectly paired with a healthy dose of pop sensibility. Couple that with spot-on production and Hawley is more than on par with current savvy blue-eyed soul crooners like Mayer Hawthorne.

ARTIST: Caleb Hawley

SONG: Little Miss Sunshine

BIRTHDATE: 3/16/85

HOMETOWN: Twin Cities

CURRENT LOCATION: Harlem

AMBITIONS: I wanna be able to play to 500 people in 50 markets. I don’t feel a need for MSG level success, but I would like to feel the energy of a sold out Bowery Ballroom. That might be more of a dream than ambitions though.

TURN-OFFS: Cliches. The chord in “Play That Funky Music White Boy” in songs written post 1979, songs that sound like “More than Words” (besides “More than Words”), and being technical, just to be technical.

TURN-ONS: Pretty much everything else. I like lyrics that can relate to a lot of people, but I also like a really good personal song, cause I like to really know people.

DREAM GIG: Prince on Guitar, Questlove on Drums, Stevie on Keys, James Jamerson on bass, Count Basie’s horn section, NY Philharmonic on strings, and me on tambourine alongside of a dancing Michael Jackson.

SONG I WISH I WROTE: “Untitled” by D’ Angelo

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: Jamie Lidell, David Lee Roth, Dr. Luke, Shaq, & Madonna if it could be at a White Castle.

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: Allen Stone on a boat on the Hudson was pretty ridiculous.

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