Drew Hickum - Band Man
Drew Hickum's songs tell stories of men and women who confront hardship with grace and dignity. His stories are about his ancestors and about all of us, all at once. Hickum was born in thea small coal mining town of St. Albans, West Virginia in the spring of 1978. Along with his parents, he often moved around the Carolinas, Florida and Tennessee, spending a large part of his youth in Nashville, TN. It was there, as a high-schooler that Hickum snuck into that city's clubs after hours to take in the Nashville singer-songwriting scene. Cowboy ballads, mountain music and William Blake caught Drew's attention early on, and as he pursued a degree in English from Sewanee, the University of the South (a small Liberal Arts college), he spent half his time listening to Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash, and the other half reading Shakespeare. Like a lot of young men, Drew graduated from college in 2001 without a clue about what to do next. He put aside his creative writing efforts and moved from Tennessee to Western Massachusetts (including Northfield, Greenfield, and Easthampton). He worked as a maple sugarer, a small-town newspaper reporter, a Spanish teacher, an environmental consultant, a city planner, a cross-country coach, an organic gardener and a researcher in a museum of historic architecture. Hickum woke up one morning in March 2006 and decided to start writing and performing songs about what it means to be a human being on Earth in the 21 st century. He used his tax return to first, pay his heating bill and then to buy an acoustic guitar. He started playing in clubs around Northampton, Massachusetts in spring 2006. His songs draw on his southern background, and center on his love for the land and deep longing for roots.