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Hayden Pedigo – Letting Go
I thought I may have burned myself out on acoustic guitar records earlier this year, but Hayden Pedigo’s Letting Go proved me wrong. In an interview, he described it as “closer to new age in tone” and perhaps that’s what’s so attractive about it – blending futurism with tradition, welcoming and embracing the new era of Texas musicianship. It’s a beautiful, contemplative, breathing record. Hayden’s elegant and painterly compositions are augmented by Luke Schneider’s pedal steel and field recordings captured by masterful producer and engineer Andrew Weathers, and swirling synths add a haze of lush dreaminess. Each of the seven…
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Hayden Pedigo – “Letting Go”
Texas musician Hayden Pedigo just announced a new record, Letting Go, to be released 9/24 via Mexican Summer. The title track pairs Pedigo’s signature intricate finger-picking with ambient synth, bass, field recordings, and pedal steel courtesy of Luke Schneider. Pedigo and recording engineer/producer/arranger Andrew Weathers are both adept at creating sonic landscapes very much interdependently entwined with their surroundings. No doubt Letting Go will be lush, evocative, and timeless. “My good friends Rocco and Gilles pitched the idea of making a video around the character on the front cover of the album to kind of show the stranger side of…
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Jerry David DeCicca – “Texas Toad”
Today, the European label Worried Songs announces their vinyl release of Jerry David DeCicca’s The Unlikely Optimist and His Domestic Adventures. The album was released digitally last year and has delighted audiences since. JDD, an Ohio native, lives in the Texas hill country with a whole menagerie. The vinyl will be available on October 1st and you can pre-order on Bandcamp. Jerry is a whimsical and worldly songwriter, and The Unlikely Optimist explores philosophical conundrums while also celebrating the simple pleasures in life. “Texas Toad” demonstrates the latter, augmented by Augie Meyers (yes, the very same of Sir Douglas Quintet…
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Cameron Knowler & Eli Winter
Friends, roadmates, and instrumental guitarists Cameron and Eli are putting an album out tomorrow on American Dreams Records. The record, influenced by a wintry tour in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas, features six transcendent originals, and three interpretations of “folk” songs (using that word loosely – “Cumberland App” is a post-modern arrangement of Cumberland Gap, and Eli’s rendition of Michael Chapman’s “Caddo Lake” with imaginative accompaniments by Cameron is truly stunning). Recording a record together may seem like a natural and intuitive decision – but it was not. Cameron found the idea insurmountable but Eli convinced him that it could…
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Jerry David DeCicca
I’m late to the game when it comes to the music of Jerry David DeCicca, but he’s a true veteran of the modern music world, having lived on the road for many years with his band Black Swans before opting for a “Quiet Life” (get it? that’s a song title) when he moved to Texas with his partner a few years back. In addition to making music, he’s also produced a good handful of albums for the Numero Group and Tompkins Square Records, and authored liner notes and articles for Aquarium Drunkard. His most recent album, 2020’s The Unlikely Optimist…
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Garrett T. Capps
I talked to San Antonio’s Garrett T. Capps, the mayor-elect, Sandwich King, and maker of great country rock and roll music. Garrett, both musically and personally, honors the past while making the rich traditions of Texas music truly his own, infusing cosmic krautrock, modular synth, and interstellar sounds with his band NASA Country to come up with something that resonates with all sorts of audiences. You can listen to our chat above. If you haven’t yet, you can find all of Garrett’s music on Bandcamp. He’s put out three fantastic albums and several EPs. I recommend listening chronologically – you…
