Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Hewlett & The Racket.
Hi Mike & The Racket, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Mike: Growing up in the Delta, whether Mississippi or Memphis, I think we formed a connection to music, and roots music especially, very early. I remember when I was young my family lived in the Rolling Fork/Vicksburg, MS area for a while and often made trips to Memphis to see family. During these trips, my grandfather would drive me through the places where Muddy Waters was born, and through Clarksdale and the Crossroads at Highway 61 and all the way up to Memphis with all of its homages to music history.
From these memories, along with always hearing his and my grandmother’s country and R&B records and tapes, and my mom’s rock n roll tapes and records, my love for music was born. A few years later we would move to Memphis, I would be gifted a guitar by my grandfather, and I have really been in love with music ever since. So, I think it was just always around me and was always going to end up a part of my life.
When I was a teenager and getting into heavy music and punk music I met some friends, one of which was our drummer, Ryan Bush. And after a few lineup changes, we met Mitchell Jones, our current bass player, and we have been making music and playing Memphis and the southeastern region with this lineup for the last couple of years.
Mitchell Jones (Bass): My mom was really the catalyst for my love of music. She had cassettes ranging from Cher to Metallica. My dad mostly listened to country. I always thought the way he flipped the cassettes over one-handed was so cool. I never could replicate it. Fast forward several years I found myself dabbling in drums and guitar, and started singing. I got in a band and we did two shows. That was until I met Mike and Bush. I loved seeing them play live and then one day their bassist moved away. A spot opened up and I got to fill it.
Ryan Bush (Drummer): My music journey started with a Xmas gift from my mom of a Fender Squier guitar and a tiny 15-watt amp. Like most kids, I got it, loved it, and then forgot about it. But after moving to the middle of nowhere Mississippi, I had a lot of time and few options and rekindled my interest in guitar.
Through many nirvana tabs and much annoyance of my family, I became sufficient enough to try out for a band. Really my first and only band has been with Mike, we share enough musical and general interests that we clicked easily together. After our first drummer broke his leg the day before a show, we found ourselves with drums but no drummer. After a few practices with just guitars, I started messing around with the kit and found it all coming pretty easily.
And that was when and where I connected with drums. It just made sense.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
For a while before the current incarnation of the band came together, I found myself without an active band for a year or two, after lineup changes with members moving out of town. I began playing solo shows and looking for a singer-songwriter scene and other songwriters here. This wasn’t easy at first, because I had been in other music scenes and didn’t know many singer-songwriters at the time.
So I asked Brian “Skinny” McCabe, owner of Hi-Tone if I could start doing a small songwriter night/open mic type thing at the Hi-Tone and he was super supportive and gave me a once a month slot. And over the last couple of years, I have met some amazing songwriters here and in surrounding areas because of the community we’ve been building and because of that opportunity.
I soon met Chris Hamlett, and he started organizing the songwriter nights with me and we ended up cutting a split record together and pressing it to vinyl. That was a great experience, but the records showed up on our doorstep in March of 2020. And well, COVID kicked our asses and sidelined us and a ton of working musicians, as it did the whole world.
We know we didn’t have it the worst, for sure, but it did take a toll. So we sat with that record for a year or more, went to a streaming-based songwriter night, and in 2021 we were able to finally get back out there and push the record with a few shows including one at the Hi-Tone with Chris Hamlett where we finally celebrated the release of our Split EP God and Country on vinyl.
Soon after, because I had found myself with band members again and some ideas over quarantine, we began writing a recording through COVID and we were able to release the result, our newest EP Unreasonable Things, in the Fall of 2021.
We are looking forward to what 2022 brings and staying busy playing shows, traveling some, and hopefully recording more songs. We have new songs and new shows coming this spring and summer and can’t wait to be out there with everyone again.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Mike Hewlett & The Racket is a no-frills, left-of-center country music experience, with early rock n roll and delta blues influences from Memphis, TN.
The songs combine roots music with lyrics of stories about real people and situations, with songcraft fundamentally rooted in folk music traditions. We have released a Split EP called God and Country with Chris Hamlett, as well as a five song EP, Unreasonable Things, which can be found on all streaming services.
We currently play Memphis and surrounding areas. We are most proud of being a part of an ever-growing, incredible community of songwriters and bands in Memphis, and just being able to create art that we love with great people.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
This goes back to my family driving through the delta when I was just a kid in the backseat.
But my grandfather would point out all the landmarks, the tributes to the bluesmen, BB King, Muddy Waters, Son House, and eventually Sun Studio and the landmarks all across Memphis and all throughout the delta, these monuments to the roots and history of American music.
That and just riding around with my mom in the car and listening to Tom Petty cassettes and feeling like rock n roll music was the coolest thing in the world.
Contact Info:
- Email: mhandtr@gmail.com
- Website: Bandcamp- Mikehewlett.bandcamp.com.
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikehewlettandtheracket/.
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/mikehewlettmusic
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2GfhqVeBqEnH3B98TcUtX3?si=iqIjOma5QYKhFAGfC5EntA.
Image Credits
Ashley Benham Photography
