Sister Hazel ~

With catchy and meaningful tunes like “All For You,” “Change Your Mind” and my personal favorites, “Champagne High,” “Your Winter” and “Thank You,” Sister Hazel has been cranking out tunes to a very receptive fan base {with diehards known as the Hazelnuts}. You should see how many Twitter followers they have! Their unique blend of pop, folk, Americana and country sounds and accessibility to fans has helped to secure Sister Hazel’s longevity in a changing musical landscape that has lasted since the mid 90s. Eat Play Rock got the change to talk to Mark Trojanowski, the band’s drummer, to see what Sister Hazel has been up to.

Mark and I chatted on the phone for a bit about Sister Hazel current events. Mark shared about the weather in Atlanta, his current home. He said it had been so rainy there that it was the most he had seen in 10 summers {very similar to the climate when he lived in Florida}. {I live in NC, and it has been crazy rainy this summer here, too.}

Eat Play Rock: Tell us about the inspiration for the band’s name.

Mark: Sister Hazel Williams was a minister who ran a soup kitchen. Ken {Block} would see her on TV doing commercials offering to help people get back on their feet. He thought that she was no longer with us but it turns out that she was in Belize doing charity work.

Did she care that you used her name for your band?

She called Ken and the story goes that he met her for breakfast at a Shoney’s to talk about the group. She said that she did not mind us using her name for the group as long as we sent a positive message.

Cruise With Sister Hazel On The Rock Boat Cruise

I was looking around online and found the Rock Boat Cruise. That sounds fun!

The Rock Boat Cruise is in it’s fourteenth year and started as a tribute to the fans about our “Fortress” album. It started out with about 20 bands. Our then manager, Sixth Man, even started his own music cruise business and bands like KISS, Kid Rock, John Mayer and Zac Brown Band have since done them. We kind of got that started.

How do you decide on ports of call?

We let the fans decide that. Having done so many, of course we have some repeats so now we spend 4-5 out to sea and a couple of those days on a private island where we set up a stage and play for 2 days. It’s really about getting the fans together and having a good time.

Sister Hazel’s Hazelnut Hang

What exactly is the Hazelnut Hang?

The Hazelnut Hang happens after Memorial Day in May or June, at the Windjammer in South Carolina’s Isle of Palms. A bunch of fans come together and we do 5-6 concerts. We do a lot of stuff like a cover show and b-sides that you can’t always see us do in concert.

Can anyone come to the Hazelnut Hang or is it just for certain fans?

Anyone can come. There are different ticket options, some with meet and greets and dinners with the band. It’s a lot of fun.

{Editor Note: I just looked up the price for the Hazelnut Hang. It is REALLY affordable!}

I saw you guys a few years ago in concert and you did your set list in alphabetical order. What a cool idea! In all of the concerts I have seen, I have never seen that. Who came up with that?

I can’t even remember that. That’s cool that you can!

It was probably like 10 years ago. I am surprised that I can.

It was probably just a random thing. We have a core bunch of songs that you have to play for the fans and otherwise the five of us take turns deciding what else gets played each night. We try to add in some stuff we haven’t played in forever.

Do you have any new projects that you are working on or other things to share?

We have a lot of new songs. We are currently looking for a record home, but everyone in the group writes and some have publishing deals in Nashville.

If you have publishing deals in Nashville, are you doing any country music?

Music is often categorized with broad strokes and we think we have a country, Americana, folk, southern rock and pop in our music. It’s like Darius Rucker who used to record with Hootie and the Blowfish and now does country music. We have a similar sound to the bands like the Band Perry and Lady Antebellum and we haven’t really changed. We have been doing it since the 90s.

I agree. It’s often hard to find the music you are looking for in stores because how they categorize it and how you categorize it is totally different.

You Can Help Sister Hazel Help Those In Need

What else do you have going on that you would like to share?

We have Lyrics For Life. Ken’s brother died of cancer {as a youth} and we have since raised over $1,000,ooo for the fight against cancer.

We also partnered with Feed The Children this year. We actually went to Honduras ourselves in February and saw the difference they are making for ourselves. They are working on ensuring that children’s basic needs are met, such as getting 2 hot meals a day and safe drinking water. We would like to raise $75,000 so that we can get maybe 10-15 fans together and all go together and build a feeding center for the children. We hope to make that happen this fall.

Catch Sister Hazel On Tour

Sister Hazel is currently on tour. For all of you in NC like me, they will be in Winston-Salem at Ziggy’s on 9/27, at Trask Coliseum in Wilmington on 9/28, and Raleigh at the NC State Fair on 10/17.

Socialize With Sister Hazel

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