Getting Used to the New Gregory and the Hawk

For the first time ever, Gregory and the Hawk, a New York-based acoustic indie band is touring though several eastern states before heading overseas in December for a line of shows in Europe.
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“In some ways it’s weird [playing away from home],” said Meredith Godreau, Gregory and the Hawk’s singer and songwriter. “In some ways it’ll be pretty familiar with all these people who love music. It’s always more familiar than you’d expect.”

In the past, Godreau has been a one-woman act, performing most of her shows in New York and in the New England area. For this tour, however, she has added an extra guitar player to deliver a more intense live show.

But delivering more intensity in a show isn’t saying much compared to what Gregory and the Hawk is used to.

With the instrumental additions, the new album and tour are both “a little more loud, but still focused on the songwriting. It’s still very intimate,” Godreau said.

Godreau is playing new songs with a new sound, in new places, to new people. In past shows, the solo act always bore one constant: her acoustic guitar. Even that has now been transformed.

 “I’ve been playing the acoustic guitar for 12 years now,” Godreau said. “I just picked up electric guitar. A lot of what makes the electric guitar more difficult [than the acoustic] is how you can adjust a sound so much more using an amp and pedals. It’s taking time to get used to it; I have to plug stuff in and I’m like, ‘Where does this plug even go?’ ”
If new instruments, a new album, new places and new faces weren’t enough, Godreau also battles pre-show jitters.

“I still get totally nervous before a show,” Godreau said. “I’ve played a lot of shows, but most of them have been near to where I’ve lived or places I’ve been to before and before I used to just sit down in front and play. It’s kind of a nervous good energy because you never know what you’re going to encounter.”

Though she may still be nervous, what Godreau doesn’t have to worry about is shaky songwriting.

Impressive in her first two releases, Boats & Birds EP, released summer 2006, In Your Dreams LP, released summer 2007, the new album, Moenie and Kitchi, which was released on FatCat records, Friday, Oct. 7, raises the bar significantly on any future projects.

Godreau has a peaceful, almost child-like voice, one that rises and falls with the songs’ variable tempos. Imagine the perfect fairytale music or the perfect lullaby; Godreau’s vocals are what you hear in your head. They’re so relaxed they seem almost unreal, like you’re dreaming.

The mysteriously make believe-sounding voice pairs perfectly with Godreau’s Gregory and the Hawk alias.

“I made [Gregory and the Hawk] up,” Godreau said. “Greg is my brother, and I don’t know why ‘the hawk.’ It was me and a friend bouncing ideas off each other. It sounds like a children’s story.”

Though the music sounds sweet and innocent, not all shows are as equally relaxed.
“There’s always a bad show when people are getting drunk and they’re not even listening to you,” Godreau said. “But there are always really good shows where people are totally there to see you and it’s them sitting down watching you … I feel a kind of tension in a good way. It’s pretty chill though, no one really jumping or moshing or anything.”

Gregory and the Hawk is scheduled to perform 9 p.m. at Newport, Ky.’s Southgate House, Thursday, Nov. 20. Tickets for the show, 18-years-old and older only, are $8.