(2018) Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay - The Hawksworth Grove Sessions



Review: 
Rhyader dwelling 12-string guitar instrumentalist Toby Hay and Sheffield born multi-instrumentalist Jim Ghedi have both put out career-best solo records fairly recently, with Hay’s Longest Day effort exploring space and jazz structure and Ghedi’s Hymn for Ancient Land fleshing out his solo sound with strings, brass and vocals and taking the listener on a journey around the British Isles. Both are wonderful records, but before either was recorded the two guitarists camped in a house in Leeds for a couple of days to put to tape a fairly brief but always intriguing set of ten tracks, all recorded live without overdubs. 
The pairing works especially well when the two guitars move back slightly from the microphone and sneak around a bit; ‘Night, Moon, Dance’ counter-balances the more up-tempo ‘Earls of Errol’, with a similar but quieter finger-picked selling point leading on nicely and forming a strong couplet to begin the record. Here the boys’ playing stays hand in hand for the most part, with a dart from the trail every so often, to create the undulating landscape rhythm that they do so well on their solo albums. Perhaps best of all though is ‘The Marcher Lords’, a beautiful tune that forms the centrepiece to the album. It starts leisurely, with both guitars running parallel before Toby strays further down the fretboard and Jim creates a gorgeous slightly slower melody. They sit in perfect harmony here, either staying together in the tune or drifting apart to rejoin down the way and the result is a beautifully well thought out track. You can almost see the high five when this one was played back after the recording session. 

Tracklist: 
01 - The Earls of Errol.flac 
02 - Night, Moon, Dance.flac 
03 - Interlude I.flac 
04 - Goat Fell.flac 
05 - The Marcher Lords.flac 
06 - The Huntsman and the Horse.flac 
07 - Wesleyan.flac 
08 - Interlude II.flac 
09 - Hawksworth Grove.flac 
10 - Arran to Aboyne.flac 

Summary: 
Country: UK 
Genre: alternative folk