I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Walter Hawkins today. Even sadder is that despite the fact he was a master craftsman and creative genius, most of the public have no clue as to who he was or how much he contributed to his field. He had world class talent.
Walter Hawkins was the leader of The Hawkins Family, a gospel music super group for several decades. Their first album came out in the mid ‘70s and I remember hearing it as a kid and loving it. For some reason, I’ve got some eclectic musical tastes for a dorky white boy from Milwaukee. There’s no reason I should like black gospel music, but I totally do.
It’s funny how that music gets categorized in stores. White groups always get labeled as ‘contemporary Christian’ while black artists are ‘gospel’. I love the gospel artists because of the raw energy. There’s usually a large choir involved and that sound is incredible. I’ve never heard anything like it, and I never get tired of hearing it. It’s soothing to the soul.
Walter Hawkins was the George Clinton of gospel music. He had several offshoots of a core group of singers and musicians, and released numerous recordings that he wrote and produced. He was surrounded by extreme talent, but he was the one who molded it into a finished product, and the results were consistently some of the best music I’ve ever heard.
He was married to Tramaine Hawkins, a superstar in gospel music. She had a few solo albums, and her power house voice is legendary. They eventually got divorced, but when they were a group they cranked out recording after recording of spectactular material that still sounds good today. Unfortunately, a lot of that great music isn’t available on CD.
I remember buying cassettes and albums as a teenager and having to hunt for those. The store clerks would usually give me a funny look, but I didn’t care. That soothing sound of a big gospel choir belting out classic tune after classic tune is something I still enjoy now, even though my feelings on God and religion have completely changed since I was a kid.
There are some Youtube clips of The Hawkins Family, and I challenge you to check out classic tunes like ‘Goin’ Up Yonder’ or ‘Be Grateful’ and not have the hair on the back of your neck stand up when Tramaine or Lynette Hawkins-Stephens start letting it rip from a place no Caucasian folk I’ve ever met seem to have inside of them. It’s beyond this earth.
The big one that blows everyone away is a song called ‘Changed’. Wow. Tramaine is at her absolute best on this one, and she blows all the dust out of the speakers and then some as the choir sways behind her adding glycerin to her nitro and making music like no other. I am in total awe of the level of talent of all these people, and Walter was right at the top.
What really saddened me was that he died of pancreatic cancer. That sounds SO painful and I just can’t grasp how a God could let that happen to not only someone with such rich talent, but someone who spent his life trying to honor a God. It doesn’t make sense, and it makes me doubt even more. Walter Hawkins was one of the best ever. He will be missed.
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