Hayden Pedigo photo by Han Lake
From the front, Hallé St Michaels is an inconspicuous building: nestled in a picturesque residential area of Ancoats, it is easily missed or, if seen, mistaken as any old church. ‘Any old’ it is not, though, given the concert it hosted on Thursday 28th August.
As one would expect in an old church building, this was an intimate gig, with the audience seated in chairs and warm, orange light painting the main hall; a setting that very much lent itself to the performances to come. Hayden Pedigo from Amarillo, Texas (by which he introduces himself at every show he does) headed the bill, an astonishing fingerstyle guitarist whose work I have long admired and whose latest album, ‘I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away,’ came out in June.
The support act, the Indiana-born, Manchester-based Black Brunswicker, was new to me, however, and my curiosity mounted the moment she took to the stage. Performing with an electric acoustic guitar connected to a variety of pedals and accompanied by an exquisite pedal steel player – one of my favourite musical instruments, I have to add – the soundscapes they created together in the half hour they played were spellbinding. Black Brunswicker’s dreamy brand of folk was a pleasure to experience live and I relished watching her go beyond the standard perception of what ‘playing guitar’ is, using a bow and tapping the strings with wooden sticks as well as plucking them. Although I haven’t listened to any of her recorded music yet, after that show, I certainly intend to.
Before the last song of her set, Black Brunswicker – herself a very impressive guitarist – said how excited she was to see Pedigo perform; echoing the sentiment of the 200-or-so-strong crowd. This was only his second show in Manchester (the first having been in 2023, in promotion of his previous album, ‘The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored’) and yet the venue was full, with a handful of latecomers having to stand at the back in the absence of available seating. Upon taking his seat in front of us, the three guitars he would be using throughout the night to his left and right, Pedigo thanked the audience for coming, commenting that he’s always surprised to see ‘more than 5 people’ turn up to hear instrumental guitar music.
Amidst this humility, although very charming, the 31-year-old musician’s status as a truly singular talent being the likely explanation for the show being sold-out went expectedly unacknowledged. Having been inspired by legends of country, folk, prog and boundary-pushing music in general, Pedigo’s sound is wonderfully vibrant and it has only grown more evocative with every new release. His ‘Motor Trilogy,’ in particular – the culmination of his work over the last half-decade, comprising the aforementioned albums alongside 2021’s ‘Letting Go’ – makes for an emotional journey; something that Pedigo experienced throughout its creation, over the course of which he left his home state of Texas for Oklahoma City.
Most of the songs he played to us were taken from the most recent of the three records, though he occasionally threw a track from the other two into the mix. On that note, Pedigo began his set with ‘Smoked,’ a brooding new cut whose sparsity live made it an apt opener: unaccompanied by the eerie, synthesised chorus of voices present on the recorded version, the meandering melody emanating from his acoustic guitar and the way every note reverberated around us left the audience – as I could gather from our collective silence – transfixed. Just speaking for myself here, I felt a rush of joy the first time he played harmonics as the sound produced is especially resonant and beautiful live.
I would describe Pedigo’s guitar playing as effortless, however, as he himself warned us beforehand, the next song he was to perform – ‘Long Pond Lily,’ the lead single from his latest album – is one of the trickiest in his repertoire to play. For context, he told us that in composing it, he was aiming for a ‘John-Fahey-meets-Led-Zeppelin’ sound, and the latter influence is palpable in an especially fast and fiddly part of the song. Despite the disclaimer, his performance went without a hitch and thus we were treated to another awe-inspiring demonstration of fingerstyle guitar.
You may have noticed that I have referred several times to things Pedigo said to us during the show. Contrary to what you might’ve assumed having heard the musician’s plaintive and pensive compositions, he was open and talkative from start to finish (although at one point he apologised for being ‘awkward,’ which I didn’t feel he was at all, but I digress). Another refreshing and, again, charming thing about Pedigo is that, at every concert he plays, he asks his audience if they have any questions for him. Inevitably, this saw the Texan confronted with the very British institution that is Wetherspoons, where he said he hadn’t been to yet (hopefully he’s enjoyed a cheap pint in one of them since).
Okay, so you’ll have to bear with me for a second while I indulge in a wee bit of self-congratulation. In my review of ‘I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away,’ I related the sound Pedigo achieves across the record to the work of Gustavo Santaolalla; in particular, the score he composed for Brokeback Mountain. Picking up his black Stratocaster and announcing the next song he was to play (‘Elsewhere,’ from his 2023 record), he added that it was to be preceded by a composition from one of his favourite film soundtracks. When I heard him begin to play that unmistakable melody from the beginning of the movie, I didn’t know whether to smile or cry; it’s a lot to hear one of your favourite musicians unexpectedly play something from one of your all-time favourite pieces of media. No tears were shed, though, and I was ultimately left feeling pretty chuffed with myself for having made the connection prior.
‘Elsewhere’ is one of Pedigo’s jauntier numbers and I loved it the moment he released it two years ago, so to hear it live was a pleasant and pretty nostalgia-inducing experience. Afterwards, he played the pastoral second track from the new record, ‘All The Way Across’ which was cool to hear played on the electric guitar given that on the studio recording he uses an acoustic. Notably, at no point did I miss the other instruments that feature on the album itself – rather, it felt special to be able to hear his immaculately-crafted melodies unaccompanied, and in so spacious a venue as Hallé St Michaels.
A handful of other songs rounded off the set: ‘Houndstooth,’ which he (and I, in my review of his album, wink wink) linked to the bittersweet sound of John Fahey; ‘Rained Like Hell’ from his 2021 release, which he said made him think about the windy weather of Amarillo; concluding with ‘I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away,’ whose name derived from a two-part episode of popular American period drama Little House on the Prairie, in which two characters fall in love at a school for blind people, with one saying the titular line to the other before they depart.
This context made Pedigo’s performance of the heart-wrenching final track – not just of the album but of the Motor Trilogy as well as the concert – that bit more powerful. Both reflective and forward-looking, happy and sad, a stunning encapsulation of life and its peaks and troughs, ‘I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away,’ with its fluctuating tempo, contemplative pauses and raw warmth, made for the most stunning song of the night.
So, the next time Hayden Pedigo from Amarillo, Texas returns to Manchester (which he praised for its hospitality and musical heritage), I’ll be there and I can only hope, for your sake, you don’t miss him, because he’s an absolute joy to watch. If you do go, be sure to come armed with a question for him, though – there will indubitably be time set aside for a quick, mid-concert Q&A.
