Mayer Hawthorne & the County October 22, 2010

A member of Athletic Mic League and Now On, Ann Arbor native and longtime eclectic DJ/producer Andrew Cohen began recording soul-seeped material as something of a joke, not planning on it to reach beyond his circle of friends and family. Mayer Hawthorne, the pseudonym Cohen used for the songs, eventually took on a life of its own. When a couple Hawthorne songs were played for Peanut Butter Wolf, the Stones Throw label head was baffled; he initially thought he could have been hearing re-edits of obscure late-'60s/early-'70s soul singles, not the work of a multi-instrumentalist who laid everything down himself. Subsequently signed to Stones Throw, Cohen debuted Hawthorne with 'Just Ain't Gonna Work Out' b/w 'When I Said Goodbye,' a pair of scratchy and bittersweet tales of heartache, on red, heart-shaped 7" vinyl. The 'Maybe So, Maybe No' 12" followed shortly thereafter, which preceded the full-length 'A Strange Arrangement,' released during fall 2009.