The Hackensaw Boys are a string band based in central Virginia that formed in 1999. The band has drawn on many musical influences and are "[k]nown best for rowdy, energetic live shows." They have performed at Bonnaroo, Lockn', FloydFest, and the All Good Music Festival. The band tours continuously and claims twenty or more current and former members. The current four-piece lineup contains only one original member, David Sickmen, who rejoined the group in 2012 (after quitting in 2005). In April 2016 the band released Charismo on Free Dirt Records, their first studio album in almost a decade — which was produced by Larry Campbell. History The Hackensaw Boys were founded in the Fall of 1999 by Rob Bullington, Tom Peloso, David Sickmen, and Robert "Bobby" St. Ours who were all living in Charlottesville, Virginia at the time. Sickmen and Bullington met in Harrisonburg, Virginia in the early 1990s when the latter was attending James Madison University there. Bullington was playing in a band called Fried Moose, while Sickmen was in a group called Pieboy with Ward Harrison (who would later join Hackensaw).Peloso formed a band with some friends in the same decade called Chigger, singing lead and playing the "doghouse bass". All had performed as young musicians on the open mic stage at the Little Grill diner in Harrisonburg, as well. Before starting The Hackensaw Boys, Sickmen and Peloso had been talking about other possible music projects. The four founding members decided to form an old-time music group — infused with the energy and spirit of punk rock. Hackensaw would later develop their own sound busking on the streets of Virginia. Ferd Moyse joined the group at the Town Pump Tavern in Black Mountain, North Carolina where they would often play. As a bartender at the tavern, Moyse would sit in with the band on "old-time fiddle" until he "just had to join". After experiencing vocal trouble for almost a decade, Sickmen had surgery to remove vocal polyps in 2015. Though the operation may not have improved his singing voice, he says, his voice is "stronger" as a result of undergoing it. "The Dirty Bird" In the Fall of 2000, an enlarged group of twelve musicians departed from Virginia in a 1964 GMC motorcoach, nicknamed "The Dirty Bird", on the six-week Get Some Tour of "theaters, bars, street corners and alleys." The bus had been given to the group