BlackHawk

Throughout the 1990s BlackHawk proved consistent hitmakers on the country scene, placing six singles inside the Billboard Country Top Ten from 1994 through 1999, among them “Every Once in a While,” “I’m Not Strong Enough to Say No,” and “Like There Ain’t No Yesterday.” That sustained chart presence underscored how seasoned the trio of Henry Paul, Van Stephenson, and David Robbins already were when they united in 1992. Paul brought experience from the Southern rock band the Outlaws, while Stephenson and Robbins had each built careers as professional songwriters, their credits including Restless Heart’s “All My Life.” Together the three blended that songwriting craft with outlaw attitude, shaping an expansive, melodic sound well suited to the rock-inflected country of the decade. After the 1990s ended, the group persisted—Stephenson departed in 2000—mixing live work with occasional studio releases such as Brothers of the Southland in 2014 and Blue Highway in 2022.

Before BlackHawk existed, each founding member had already moved through different corners of the industry. Lead vocalist Henry Paul performed with the Outlaws in the mid-1970s and later fronted his own Henry Paul Band. Van Stephenson briefly tasted album-rock success when “Modern Day Delilah” reached number 22 on the Billboard charts in 1984 and its follow-up “What the Big Girls Do” climbed to 45. Once later singles failed to match those peaks, Stephenson joined forces with keyboardist David Robbins; the pair wrote several hits for Restless Heart. Paul soon became acquainted with the pair. They began as songwriting partners yet quickly chose to launch a band, naming it BlackHawk after the Stutz Blackhawk, the prewar American sports car.

Arista Nashville signed BlackHawk in 1993 and promptly issued the debut single “Goodbye Says It All,” which rose to number 11. The follow-up “Every Once in a While,” taken from the self-titled 1994 debut album, climbed to number two and cleared the path for “I Sure Can Smell the Rain,” “Down in Flames,” and “That’s Just About Right” each to enter the Country Top Ten. Strong Enough, the second album, sustained the group’s chart activity through 1996, with “I’m Not Strong Enough to Say No” peaking at two and “Like There Ain’t No Yesterday” at three, while “Almost a Memory Now” reached 11. After the modest showing of 1997’s Love & Gravity—whose two singles barely grazed the Top 40—BlackHawk recovered with The Sky’s the Limit, which yielded the number-four country hit “There You Have It” and “Your Own Little Corner of My Heart,” a track that peaked at 27.

Arista Nashville issued Greatest Hits in May 2000, coinciding with Stephenson’s exit to battle melanoma complications; he died on April 8, 2001. The band recruited Randy Threet, another Outlaws alumnus, yet he remained only for the 2002 Columbia album Spirit Dancer. Shortly afterward Anthony Crawford replaced Threet. BlackHawk moved to Rust Records in 2006, releasing the singles “Better at Hello” and “Who’s Gonna Rock Ya” before the label closed. Michael Randall succeeded Crawford that same year, but the larger change came when Robbins exited in 2008. Jon Coleman stepped in, Threet returned, and guitarist Chris Anderson plus drummer Monte Yoho completed the lineup supporting Paul on the Airline release Greatest Hits Live in 2008. By 2010 Robbins rejoined, reducing the group to the duo of himself and Paul. That configuration delivered Down from the Mountain in 2011, followed three years later by Brothers of the Southland.

In 2019 the band issued the holiday collection Spirit of Christmas. Blue Highway, their first set of original material in eight years, appeared in July 2022.