Ronald James Hawkins is a musician from

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

who is best known as a member of the band

The Lowest of the Low The Lowest of the Low is a Canadian alternative rock group formed in 1991 from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, '' Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995''. ECW Press. . They were on ...

."Low man known for artistic highs; Album No. 15 confirms his staying power". ''

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'', April 7, 2016. He has also released music as a solo artist, and fronted the bands Ron Hawkins and the Rusty Nails and Ron Hawkins and the Do Good Assassins.

Ben Rayner Ben Rayner is a music critic and writer for the ''Toronto Star'' since 1998. His commentary on artists is extensively cited across the industry. Indie88 considers him "of the most respected industry professionals around." In 2012, he served on ...

"Ron Hawkins, man of many bands"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'', March 24, 2016. He has produced albums for multiple independent bands and artists and is also an accomplished painter.

Career

The Lowest of the Low sold over 100,000 copies of their two independent releases, ''

Shakespeare My Butt ''Shakespeare My Butt...'' is an album by Canadian band The Lowest of the Low, released in 1991. Lead singer Ron Hawkins, guitarist Stephen Stanley and drummer David Alexander were previously in the band Popular Front, but when they formed The ...

'' and ''

Hallucigenia ''Hallucigenia'' is a genus of lobopodian known from Cambrian aged fossils in Burgess Shale-type deposits in Canada and China, and from isolated spines around the world. The generic name reflects the type species' unusual appearance and eccen ...

''. ''Shakespeare My Butt'' was voted by Canadians as one of the Top 10 Canadian Albums of all time by ''

Chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

'' magazine."Chart Magazine's Top 100 Greatest Canadian Albums Of All Time (Feb. 2000)"
Retrieved on 26 November 2013. The band broke up in 1994. After The Lowest of the Low broke up, Hawkins formed The Leisure Demons with former Squirrel drummer Stephen Keeping. The Leisure Demons recorded a four-song demo containing songs that were later recorded by his next band, The Rusty Nails. In 1995, he released his first solo album, ''The Secret of My Excess''. The musicians on this release—Lawrence Nichols (vocals), Christopher Plock (saxophones), Michael Kaler (aka Blitz) (bass)—soon became known as The Rusty Nails, and were joined by Rob Fenton (saxophone, violin), and Mark Hansen (drums). Mark Hansen was a member of the Toronto band Dig Circus, which was mentioned in a Lowest of the Low song. The Rusty Nails spent much of 1996 and 1997 touring in support of ''The Secret of My Excess''. In September 1998 their first album, ''Greasing the Star Machine,'' was released independently, and was followed by ''Crackstatic'' in 2000. The band supported

Billy Bragg Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, author and political activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic th ...

The Violent Femmes Violent Femmes are an American folk punk band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The band consists of founding members Gordon Gano (guitar, lead vocals) and Brian Ritchie (bass, backing vocals), joined by multi-instrumentalist Blaise Garza (joined 20 ...

Cracker Cracker, crackers or The Crackers may refer to: Animals * ''Hamadryas'' (butterfly), or crackers, a genus of brush-footed butterflies * '' Sparodon'', a monotypic genus whose species is sometimes known as "Cracker" Arts and entertainment Films ...

and Big Sugar on tours. In 2000, The Lowest of the Low reunited. They performed a reunion tour, which resulted in the live album '' Nothing Short of a Bullet''. They later recorded another album, '' Sordid Fiction'', before splitting up again in 2007. The Lowest of the Low continue to play sporadic shows to this day, including a tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of their most famous album, ''

'', which culminated at Massey Hall on May 7, 2011. The band reformed again and recorded ''Do the Right Now'' in September 2017 and ''Agitpop'' in 2019. ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'' magazine, writing about the album ''10 Kinds of Lonely'' (2009), notes that "the spontaneous results confirm his status as one of our best wordsmiths".

Bob Wiseman Robert Neil Wiseman (born 1962) is a film composer, songwriter, author and music teacher. Wiseman discovered or produced many artists including Ron Sexsmith, The Lowest of the Low, Bruce McCulloch of Kids in the Hall, Anhai, and former Canadia ...

joined him on keyboards to perform the record live. In 2011 he formed a new band, the Do Good Assassins. They released a double CD, ''Rome'', in 2012 and ''Garden Songs'' in 2015. The song "Peace and Quiet" from ''Garden Songs'' was played prior to every home game at

Air Canada Centre Scotiabank Arena (SBA), formerly known as Air Canada Centre (ACC), is a multi-purposed arena located on Bay Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the home of the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and t ...

for the

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for the 2015–16 and 2016-17 seasons. Hawkins's sixth solo album, ''Spit Sputter and Sparkle'', was released in 2016 on Pheromone Recordings. In 2020, with Canada and much of the world in lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, Hawkins began hosting live shows broadcast from his living room for fans to watch. Dubbed "Tommy Douglas Tuesdays" (named in tribute to Tommy Douglas for his role in bringing universal health care to Canada), the weekly shows saw Hawkins play every song in his entire catalog before moving on to request nights and themed evenings.

Discography

The Lowest of the Low

* ''

'' (1991) * ''

'' (1994) * '' Nothing Short of a Bullet'' (2001) * '' Sordid Fiction'' (2004) * ''Do the Right Now'' (2017) * ''Thrifty Thrifty Thrifty'' (2018) * ''AgitPop'' (2019) * ''Welcome to the Plunderdome'' (2023)

Ron Hawkins and the Rusty Nails

* ''Greasing the Star Machine'' (1998) * ''Crackstatic'' (2000) * ''Airports of the World'' EP (2001)

Solo

* ''The Secret of My Excess'' (1996) * ''Hey Valerie'' EP (1996) * ''Chemical Sounds'' (2007) * ''10 Kinds of Lonely'' (2009) * ''Straitjacket Love'' (2011) * ''Spit Sputter and Sparkle'' (2016) * ''Trash Talkin' at the Speed of Sound'' (2023)

Ron Hawkins and the Do Good Assassins

* ''Rome'' (2012) * ''Garden Songs'' (2015) * ''246'' (2020)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins, Ron 1965 births Living people Canadian rock singers Canadian indie rock musicians Canadian folk rock musicians Singers from Toronto 20th-century Canadian male singers 21st-century Canadian male singers Canadian male singer-songwriters 20th-century Canadian singer-songwriters 21st-century Canadian singer-songwriters