Niagara Falls bass playing brothers both played with Ronnie Hawkins

Niagara Falls | History | Music |

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Published May 31, 2022 at 12:02 pm

This photo of Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks was taken late 1950s and most of the members of The Band are in it.

With the passing of rockabilly legend Rompin’ Ronnie Hawkins on the weekend, people have been looking into the many players that comprised The Hawks, his back-up band over the many decades.

Granted, the most famous ones – Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson – all left “The Hawk” heading for the United States and eventual music stardom as The Band.

Born and raised in Arkansas, Hawkins quickly became a star on the Canadian bar circuit after began touring in Ontario in 1958 and by the time he was featured in a CBC Telescope documentary in 1967, he was ensconced in Canada, living in a farmhouse in Streetsville.

“You know, I don’t know anything about Canadian politics, the price of wheat or Niagara Falls,” he said in the documentary. “But I sure do know one thing: I sure dig it up here.”

Well, actually, it turns out Ronnie did know something about Niagara Falls. Having over 60 members in is back-up band over the decades, a pair of bass-playing brothers from the Falls did time in his band back in the 1980s.

Wayne King was his bass player in 1980, only to be replaced by his brother Ken King in 1981.

Their stints as Hawks bass players was short-lived as Wayne was preceded in 1979 by Robert Johnston while Ken was replaced by Roly Greenway in 1982.

They actually weren’t even the only bass-playing brothers in The Hawks over the decades as Rick Danko (later of The Band) and Terry Danko did their stints, too – Rick in the early 1960s, Terry in the early 1970s.

But after Hawkins passed away peacefully at the age of 87 following a long illness, over 60 musicians can lay credit to working with him from 1959 until now.

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