‘Long Pond Lily,’ the opening track to Hayden Pedigo’s latest album, ‘I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away,’ is a mesmerising piece of music. The Amarillo-born musician is no stranger to ‘mesmerising,’ that said: with each new project, Pedigo has honed his sound – exquisite acoustic guitar melodies plucked atop spacious, transportive sonics – and in the process, cemented himself as one of modern country’s finest instrumentalists and composers. Honing one’s sound is one thing, but when a minute or so into said opener, he presents us with a phase-soaked, psychedelic arpeggio, we’re led to assume that on this record, Pedigo enters unchartered territory.
Our assumption would be correct. In just under 30 minutes, ‘I’ll Be Waving…’ sees Pedigo take us along, as with his previous albums, on what feels like a Sunday sunset drive through one of Southern America’s many seemingly endless plains. However, in slight contrast to the other works he has put out this decade, the musician engineers some unorthodoxy in the route; not so much as to leave the listener on edge, but just enough to ensure their eyes are on the road ahead. In ‘Long Pond Lily,’ then, this journey is given a perfect introduction, as the plaintive, plucked mantras those familiar with Pedigo’s work will have anticipated are interspersed with sequences of crescendoing cymbals and electric guitar licks ripped straight from the Summer of Love.
Third track ‘Smoked’ is similarly idiosyncratic. While Pedigo plucks a reflective melody, enlisting harmonics at intervals to transfixing effect, a low, brooding choir fades in and out of the mix. Upon first listen, I found myself particularly endeared by the fact that the choir is synthesised. One of Pedigo’s favourite albums, James Ferraro’s ‘Last American Hero’ from 2008, is an amalgamation of country and electronic music – the resultant songs, as homely as they are haunting – and I wouldn’t be surprised if this inspired Pedigo’s decision to opt for artificial over real voices, for there is an unsettling quality to them.
Every song on ‘I’ll Be Waving…’ features violins sounding alongside the acoustic guitar. For instance, wispy strings soar on ‘Hermes,’ contrasting with the rumbling bass notes strummed by Pedigo on his guitar and leaving us to revel in the rich soundscape this creates. So, too, on the title track, where a melody as bittersweet as said title is cushioned by the strings of violins and a pedal steel, an instrument that, though used sparsely on this record, regularly appears in Pedigo’s work; its distinctive, resonant wails only emphasising the sense of wistfulness evoked on the album closer. The musician’s most stupefying use of strings has to be on the Fahey-esque ‘Houndstooth,’ though: mid-way through what is a relatively sedate song, whispers of fingerstyle guitar are countered by powerful bursts of grand, sweeping violins.
Though a thread of experimentalism, however subtle, is perceptible across this record, I was glad to discover that the dreamy, pastoral sound Pedigo has nigh-on mastered in his music is not deviated from too much. On ‘All the Way Across,’ a tender song reminiscent of Gustavo Santaolalla’s original compositions that soundtrack Brokeback Mountain’s most beautiful scenes, the guitar melody quickens and slows like a stream; a ‘subtler’ innovation taking the form of piano trills that patter upon the main refrain as rain would against a window. The quaint ‘Small Torch,’ another track that could be mistaken as a cut from 2021’s ‘Letting Go’ or ‘The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored’ from two years later, sees guitar, strings and a serene synth pad coalesce to emulate the sense of being, briefly, untethered from the world and its demands.
In a recent post to social media, Pedigo described his songs as being ‘pieces of context for things that haven’t happened yet,’ adding that their meanings often come to him ‘much later’. Quite the profound statement, he applied it to an unexpected family emergency that occurred amidst the rollout of ‘I’ll Be Waving as You Drive Away,’ after which he was able to identify a new, ‘heavier’ connotation in the album’s title. Moreover, there is a beauty in the way Pedigo’s music can serve as a space for reflection and convalescence, not simply for himself but for all who have the pleasure of hearing it.
With his latest project, Pedigo’s principal aim was to explore the idea that we are all in a ‘constant state of leaving’: a sentiment that is universal and beautiful, in that it is an inextricable aspect of being human. As the seven songs on ‘I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away’ strike so perfect a balance between contentment and melancholy, Pedigo can be assured that his exploration of this concept through music is one of the most successful.
Hayden Pedigo: I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away – Out 6 June 2025 (Mexican Summer)
Pedigo – Long Pond Lily (Official Video)
