#heavy lifter

Hovvdy – Music Hall of Williamsburg – March 11, 2025

Hovvdy, the Texas duo of Charlie Martin and Will Taylor, have made their career on music that speaks to the most tender moments in life, but not necessarily the biggest. Their songs, about family, love and sometimes a sweet toke, are not grand or torchy. They live in the spaces of a tenuous nostalgia — where memory might falter but the heart remembers.

Their acclaimed fifth and self-titled album, released last spring, is a masterclass in that feeling, and in the unique sound that they’ve honed. It cuts together the breeziness of pop-country and the energy of indie rock with experimentation more closely linked to dream-pop and trip-hop. Hovvdy sound both like a study of our greatest Americana bards and something altogether idiosyncratic (see: the Auto-Tuned vocals and drums on “Bubba” (Hovvdy)).

The two brought their tour to a packed house at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Tuesday night, the first of two back-to-back shows. They opened with “Make Ya Proud,” a song that falls toward the middle of the latest album, and an example of Martin and Taylor’s powerfully devastating lyricism. “Grandpa, can you take a bigger bite? / Come on, man, you need strength, yeah/ Everyone needs a little more time/ Goddamn, don’t we all need more time?”

“Cathedral,” off their 2019 album, Heavy Lifter, came next, a short and sweet track whose last verse I’ve almost certainly belted in some car along some highway at some romantic inflection point. Later, the band played another Heavy Lifter track, “Mr. Lee,” with its grinning-happy melody that sits in opposition to a story tinged with sadness.

They played several Hovvdy songs, including “Jean,” “Clean” and “Bubba,” but moved through their work like a survey. “Blindsided,” off boldly titled True Love, was the contemplative memory locket Hovvdy do so well: “Hot summers where I come from / Cold Bud in a solo cup, “Fresh Air” on the radio/ In the shade of the back porch, Mama said she’s mad at you.” 

That 2021 album features perhaps their most popular single of the same name, and it was the star of their encore. The lion’s share of the song is repeated over and over, a mantra slow and controlled then increasingly unrestrained: “Do you believe what I said? / That I’m the man I say I am?” 

It’s a neat trick. The question, asked of another, eventually becomes one we’re asking ourselves. Hovvdy’s work reminds me that belief and memory are not necessarily the pillars we hope them to be. They are instead chimeras, everchanging and fragile. And isn’t that a beautiful thing? —Rachel Brody | @RachelCBrody

(Hovvdy play Music Hall of Williamsburg again tonight.)

Photos courtesy of Lexi Yob | @filmbyyobby

everyday in quarantine i cry to a hovvdy song, today it’s sudbury!!

A belated but honest holiday post

I think it’s fair to say the U.S. Jewish community (probably the world Jewish community) is reeling in reaction to the incident last night in Monsey, New Jersey. In general the bad news seems to be accelerating lately. I had a hard time bringing myself to light the last Chanukkah candle tonight.

As far as I go with the holiday: on the 24th I was in such a mood of rage that I was almost afraid to…