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

Rhyader dwelling twelve-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. The tiny but very pretty ‘Interlude I’ leads on to ‘Goat Fell’, a signature sounding Hay tune I suspect is built straight from the Welsh mountains (but it could also be from Jim’s Derbyshire or anywhere else they have trodden). 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.

‘The Huntsman and the Horse’ follows on perfectly from ‘Marcher Lords’ as another deliberately patient piece that finds Toby’s twelve-string higher notes in the foreground, while Jim’s slightly quieter lines nestle in delicately. It’s another impressive example of how well and easily these two play together. The second part of the album, starting with ‘Huntsman’ and leading on to ‘Wesleyan’ finds the duo playing very calm and considered music. The latter begins as a piece almost Celtic in its structure and style before the melody softens just enough to shift the mood of the song into a summer piece, with the duo rattling along together relaxed and confident. ‘Interlude II’ follows on as a more disparate micro conversation piece, which works really well against the organised tunes preceding it. I love the two little interlude pieces on here, a little pair of slightly more maverick, carefree numbers that do enough to etch themselves before the next one arrives.

Final track ‘Arran to Aboyne’ is a travel tune, which is an art the pair are masters at. Toby’s recent ‘Leaving Chicago’ is a good example of his strength as an evocative travelling music composer, while Jim’s ‘Home for Moss Valley’ beautifully guides the listener through five miles of border country. Here the melody creates a strong spine for the piece, while the pair take it in turns running around the fretboard or managing to get their instrument to sound like a harp, before coming back to the tune itself. It’s another piece of gorgeously played music that arrives at its destination without a fuss and closes a set to lose yourself in. Hawksworth Grove is a lovely album; calming, rousing and beautifully played throughout.