Hawksley Workman

The story of Canadian singer/songwriter Hawksley Workman is equally compelling whether you take it to be fact or fantasy and whether it is regarding his personal history or his music. The artist originally hailed from Bay Lake. From this point on, however, the tale gets somewhat hazy and wholly bizarre, owing in large part to the short, ongoing biography (Chapter Two) published on his website (www.hawksleyworkman.com). Self-styled by Workman, it seemed to be a partially invented, quasi-fictional account of his first 24 years and created quite a buzz and a fair amount of conjecture, scuttlebutt, and intrigue from media and fans even before his music had a chance to become celebrated or widely known. According to the autobiography, his idyllic childhood in a rural part of Canada included such idiosyncratic fantasia as drifting "in the sky on a kite carefully fastened to a button on my shirtsleeve." As he grew older, he took a job cutting ice from the lake while listening to the songs of the winter birds, then once he finished his schooling, he made the transition from the forest to the big city Toronto. Here the saga takes on the delicious charm of a more lighthearted modern day Dickensian narrative. Workman found work in a tap-dance academy, where he supposedly polished the rental shoes, kept the turntable needle clean, and mopped and finished the dancefloor at the end of every day in exchange for "a modest wage, a cot next door to the broom closet, and the opportunity to join the beginners afternoon class." With those classes, his life immediately changed with dance and music garnering Workman's full attention, even to the detriment of sleep, as a result of all-night practice sessions. According to the biography, he became one of the school's top dancers, giving regular Sunday recitals and even performing for the Dutch Royal Family. Incidentally, Chapter One of his bio was a series of letters to a fictional ideal lover and muse who lives underwater, Isadora (also the name of his record label), that originally appeared in the personal section of Now Magazine. The letters were eventually collected into an actual book, Hawksley Burns for Isadora, and published in the spring of 2001 by the Canadian alternative, experimental Gutter Press.

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