Download Impressions Here

Mayer Hawthorne is the nom de plume of Andrew Mayer Cohen, a Detroit born musician whose exploits with the hip hop-based Athletic Mic League led him to relocate to L.A. several years ago. In an attempt to create music outside of his DJ Haircut persona from AML, Cohen randomly wrote a pair of soul inspired tunes, leading his friend, the head of lauded indie record label Stones Throw Records, to sign him immediately.  Hawthorne subsequently released the full-length A Strange Arrangement to widespread acclaim, and his band, ‘The County’ does more than an adequate job of bringing those songs to life during performances.

The lore of Mayer’s brilliance is that, for his debut record, he played every instrument himself and recorded the vocals through a dilapidated pair of headphones.  While this is mostly true, he also received help from some friends on lead guitar and horns. For the sake of a good story, though, it certainly does the trick.

Regardless of who played which instrument, his songs posses an interesting quality with their casual blend of classic songwriting and modern production techniques.  At a basic level, the songs sound like something Curtis Mayfield would record, but the production has the attention to relevant sounds that only a modern-minded hip hop producer would conjure up. Though he could be seen as just another one of the crop of ‘retro soul’ revivalists that have come out in recent years, others including Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse, Mayer is being pretty truthful to his inclinations as a musician. He has his own sound and dose of unique skill.

Mayer and the County just released a free ep of cover songs entitled Impressions, which should hold over fans until the next full length, which is hopefully coming soon.