HAWKSLEY WORKMAN'S WINTER BIRD TOUR

Old Cheetah, Hawksley Workman’s 15th album, put its prints in the wet cement in June. The album is another notch in the long career of a creatively restless mind; it marks the time and mood of its maker as much as of its making. The swagger and panache of Hawksley’s early years has given way to the furrowed brows and philosophical unease of mid-life social and political awareness, but the simple truth about it is that the more his music changes, the more Hawksley Workman stays the same.

The songs on Old Cheetah are sexy, swirly and synthy. There are moments of gravity and there are moments of madness. There are songs for Hawksley’s oldest fans and songs for the new ones.

Now, Hawksley Workman takes his band on the road across much of Canada for the Winter Bird Tour. The tour is named for the song on Old Cheetah, an ode to freezing and thawing, one of the great Canadian metaphors for love and life. Instinct is everything.