Originally started by former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes, A Hawk and a Hacksaw released its self-titled debut, on which Barnes played all the instruments and which explored 20th century American music, in 2004 on Leaf Records. The next year, after enlisting help from tuba player Mark Weaver, trumpeter Dan Clucas, and violinist Heather Trost, Barnes and the band issued Darkness at Noon, which was recorded in the U.K. and in Barnes' native Albuquerque, NM, and delved into both Eastern European and American folk music. Ever the traveler, Barnes went to Romania for the group's (which was by this time just him and Trost) third album, where he recorded songs for it with the Gypsy brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia. The Way the Wind Blows, which continued A Hawk and a Hacksaw's tradition of mainly instrumental fare, was then released in 2006.