Ryan Townsend's UNION AND HAWKS, my old beat
Submitted by Ian Beaty on Wed, 2007-02-14 17:57.
I wrote a review of Vancouver songwriter Ryan Townsend's tune UNION AND HAWKS and afterward, realized my review was as more about me and my old neighbourhood than about Ryan's song. Critics are so self absorbed. So I thought i'd blog it.
I usually comment on the musical and production values of a track. But what grabbed me about this tune right away was it's title- an intersection of two residential streets in the heart Vancouver's Strathcona area. As someone who spent many years living on Hawks avenue, just two blocks down from Union, and who spent plenty of time hanging out at the Union Market which overlooks the song's "title corner" as it were, i wanted to know what Townsend's take would be.
Though I qualify as one of the "well-fed" if not "wealthy" in Townsend's lyric, I've been following the gentrification of the area with interest over the past 8 years--the establishment of artists and hipsters in the area and the influx of investors and developers that inevitably follow. Just three weeks ago, I was evicted from my own home after developers bought it. They've begun renovations, which, i concede were WELL overdue. I've got mixed feelings on the issue, but there is certainly no denying that while the area is being tangibly improved (at least on the Union and Hawks side of the tracks), many long time residents, my dear neighbours, are being displaced.
So instead of complimenting Mr Townsend on his guitar stylings- which aren't always totally steady but work very well- or wondering if his southern drawl (union and hOWks)? s isn't a little affected, I think he's done something very interesting by writing about the forces at play at this (pedestrian only) intersection that really is at the heart of a Vancouver neighbourhood.
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