Read on BPM here Hayden Pedigo is a perfectionist. Every sound you hear on his new record I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away sounds meticulously intentional – nothing is out of place. This delibracy is exactly what makes his sound stand out among other Americana folk guitarists like John Fahey and Jack Rose. If Fahey and Rose’s arrangements scuttle along haphazardly like a Pollock painting, Pedigo’s guitar playing feels like the precisionist aspects of Charles Sheeler’s Western industrial – restrained, austere, and geometric . Similarly, it’s like comparing Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller to Anthony Mann’s The Naked Spur – both strikingly peculiar in their own way. Across its seven tracks, I’ll Be Waving concludes Pedigo’s “Motor Trilogy” with ironic sincerity. “I actually want you to meet me, I want you to know who I am”, Pedigo declares on the record’s press release. The opening standout single “Long Pond Lily” fits perfectly into Pedigo's description of the record: “a...
Read on BPM here On A Trick of the Light , Chicago resident and Houston-born guitarist Eli Winter jaunts through West Texas, where the Marfa Lights glimmer on the horizon, cigarette smoke softens the glow of neon bar signs, and Tejano music drifts through the perennial breeze. His clear instrumental prowess aside, Winter’s tracks shine most when he allows ample room for the music to grow, in whichever way that might be. Indeed, Winter often lets his compositions write themselves, trying to “learn what the music wants” and trusting “when it wants something or doesn't want it”, he explained while discussing this record. But it feels like he’s always had this perspective. Several tracks on A Trick of the Light and previous records – including his acclaimed 2022 self-titled album and 2020’s Unbecoming – often stretch well over the five minute mark, which help to fortify a sense of confidence and novelty throughout. What often feels like a track’s conclusion is actually ...