I See Hawks In L.A. - Hallowed Ground (Big Book) Forty years after Gram Parsons invented the genre, country rock is still alive and kicking in Southern California. I See Hawks In L.A. might have given themselves an unwieldy name, but there’s nothing awkward about the music they make. Hallowed Ground is an album of classic one-toke-over-line roots rock, with one foot in hedonistic Los Angeles and the other in down-to-earth Bakersfield. The album’s title track dishes up the ambience in spades: deft pedal steel - take a bow Dave Zirbel - entwines a rock solid rhythm section, and Rob Waller brings it home with a song that contemporizes the past. And that’s a trick they consistently pull. “Highway Down” is a love song to the open road and wide open spaces, but mixed up with more than a little regret and “Ever Since The Grid Went Down” is aural proof that their juvee years didn’t go past without a little Allmans and some chooglin’ John Fogerty. www.iseehawks.com Rob F. Next Past Reviews: March 07, April 07, May 07, June/July 07, Sept/Oct 07, Dec07, Jan08, Feb 08, Mar 08