RW HEDGES TALKS 'THE HILLS ARE OLD SONGS' (2019)

RW Hedges’ The Hunters In The Snow was an unexpected delight in 2018. It tenderly found its own time and place in the world; an escape from the bustle and brutishness of the modern age, chipped from the earth, lit by the moon.

The Acoustic Egg Box, placed it third in their album of the year list, wrote, “Whilst the influences of Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer or Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe may lurk knowingly in the background of the nine songs on this delicate and, in places, achingly beautiful album, there are also harmonies and melodies that would sit gracefully on any classic Everly Brothers album.”  Shindig magazine, gave it a full five stars, called it a “magical collection” adding “these woody outdoor lullabies twinkle in the stars as references to sea and sailors, booze and opium, give a gently woozy and hallucinatory effect.”

The follow-up, The Hills Are Old Songs, released last month on Wonderful Sound, is no less impressive, another sumptuous collection of songs beautifully performed and produced. Softly strummed with a cornucopia of ancient instruments carefully picked, plucked and brushed. RW Hedges and compadre Luca Nieri, tie up their horses, pitch their tent, and sing lullabies as beans heat gently in the can. Matt Allwright takes time off from chasing rogues on the telly to embellish a couple of songs with the salty weep of a pedal steel guitar. 

If The Hunter In The Snow harked back to the 50s and 60s, The Hills Are Old Songs imagines the American West of 1877, the year the phonograph was invented, although the Great American Songbook still warms their work. Again, so many of the tracks echo like they’ve been handed down through the generations. ‘Down To Venesuala’, ‘Deep In The Valley’, ‘Haven’t Seen Her In A While’, 'The Westerners' and others (practically every one) already feel like established classics. The exquisite ‘Sure Enough’ is a contender for RW Hedges' pinnacle so far, lyrically heartstring tugging ("the cries of lonely crows catch a glimse of sun crawling up the hill to find me") and feels in some ways like Bob Dylan’s ‘To Make You Feel My Love’, a song that could take on a whole life of its own, covered all over the world, with versions from simple acoustic readings played for one listener to a full orchestra holding a packed Royal Festival Hall in silent rapture. 

There's gold in them hills, get searching. 

Monkey Picks spoke to RW Hedges.

Tell us first about The Hunters In The Snow. What were you striving to achieve?
The Hunters in the Snow came about because Luca (Nieri) and I were in a similar frame of mind at the same time. It took some relearning and I had to adapt to a better working technique. It’s a melancholy yet melodic album. It was conversational, we were making a plan, listening to music often, with guitars always on our backs, always talking about it... that album had an effect on our future projects and opened up a door. However, it is a more personal album whilst The Hills are Old Songs is more story/character based.

What influences your songs. Both musically and in other way?
Musically we both love exotica, easy listening, early doo wop, American Songbook, Broadway, Hollywood. In our early days it was more folk and rock ‘n’ roll. That’s all still good but we are maturing as writers and needed other avenues. Other influences, a fire or a trip to the river. Anything that is free like that. But also, it’s the effort to collect wood or to notice nature as an important thread to songs. The interviews that are available with the American songbook writers are interesting as they really loved Song, they loved the whole thing. They loved each other’s songs. When you look at how great songs were made it can inform you.

Tell us about “RW Hedges”. It seems to have developed from yourself, Roy, to now encompass Luca.
Luca is a producer as well as a solo artist. RW Hedges songs are stronger for the work I have done with Luca and we see ourselves as a team. I wrote one song with Luca for his next album. I’m sure as we develop there will be more joint projects. But an RW Hedges album is hopefully just as special as one by Luca Nieri.

How do you collaborate? Who does what, the division of labour etc.
Luca can do everything but the divide of labour depends on how you see authorship. We share and we enjoy whatever we have done. Our motto is ‘Song is King’ but that doesn’t change the fact that Luca is the multi-instrumentalist and I’m the guy who likes to talk.

There appears a theme to the collection on The Hills Are Old Songs, care to explain? Did you set out with that in mind?
After buying Dee Browns book ‘The Westerners’ last summer there was a sudden realisation of a few things. We had already written two Western themed songs, I had a mini library on the subject but had never brought it together on a shelf. We set about studying similarly to Hunters In The Snow but with a stronger theme. This was natural as we wrote another album last year for a 2020 release also with specific references. The American West is a fascinating period in history. And given the chance to soak in the movies and the popular culture is just a great pleasure. The whole thing took eight months to write and make from start to finish. A theme is a challenge as it can become a pastiche. This album is not one.

I like how your songs never outstay their welcome. They say all the need, then move on. Concise.
You’ve got to try not to hang about I guess. Many artists seem to start the song up after a whole 50 seconds. Then there’s the musicians wanting extra rolls, arrangements and solos. All boring. Five minutes or more of a simple song is unbearable for me. We nip all that off the bud these days.

I sense you take the creation of music very seriously. You’re quite outspoken about music that doesn’t meet your ideals. Why is it so important?
It is important to make a song walk and talk on its own. Anything else will deflate over time. Writing for a character, a theme, a period, another work of art is so much more fulfilling than writing about yourself. People call themselves artists in the name of a very narrow space in their head. The individualistic has perhaps been overdone.

What are you planning on doing to promote the album? What’s next?
We will go to Liverpool where people seem to like us. The gigs we do are few but increasingly special. We are likely to do a lullaby, a funny song, a few from the Songbook of America and then we will pick a few from our albums. We will promote of course but many artists are frustrated with the industry. It doesn’t always give back. But Luca and I have a plan and we write specifically. We project ahead by a few years, we have our equivalent of a song trunk where we keep our songs sometimes letting them hibernate. On our next album we return to the countryside of England with something I believe is a real treat. 

Buy The Hills Are Old Songs direct from Wonderful Sound
https://wonderfulsound.bandcamp.com/album/the-hills-are-old-songs-2 or, at the very least, for starters, stream on Spotify.

THE HUNTERS IN THE SNOW by RW HEDGES (2018)

“You may look at me and think the Lord employed a fool” opines West London troubadour RW Hedges as the introductory line to his first properly released album. By the end of this enchanting record nothing could be further from the truth.

Hedges’ vintage sounding songs, sturdily crafted with memorable melodies, are mined from similar ground to the best of Richard Hawley, leaving collaborator Luca Nieri from labelmates The Monks Kitchen, free to adorn them with glimmering accompaniment and a gorgeous production recalling the first Fleet Foxes album.

These woody outdoor lullabies twinkle in the stars as references to sea and sailors, booze and opium, give a gently woozy and hallucinatory effect. ‘Signal Man’, based on a spooky Dickensian story, echoes down the line with the ghost of Glen Campbell and ‘Best Laid Plans’ waltzes like a tipsy Ray Davies in reflective mood.

Full of understated grandeur, The Hunters In The Snow, is a magical collection.

This review first appeared in Shindig magazine. The Hunters In The Snow is released by Wonderful Sound, out now. 

APRIL PLAYLIST

1.  The Drifters – ‘I Gotta Get Myself A Woman’ (1956)

Johnny Moore on lead vocals is desperate for a woman he can call his own. “Doesn’t matter if she’s young or old, if she knows to do the things she’s told, and stay in beside me night and day…” You’ve been warned ladies.

2.  Larry Williams – ‘Little School Girl’ (1960)

Larry Williams (above) led, according to his Wikipedia entry, a “life mixed tremendous success with violence and drug addiction”. And that’s underplaying it. Personal stuff apart, his records packed a punch that reverberates to this day.

3.  Buddy Miles Express – ’69 Freedom Special’ (1969)

Get on board this rolling instrumental produced by Jiminy Hendrix (mercifully free on guitar mangling).

4.  J.J. Jackson – ‘Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?’ (1970)

Tired of New York’s boogaloo beat and noticing “the only difference between me and last week’s ‘soul star’ was 100 pounds and which words got emphasised in ‘Can you feel it?’” Jackson hit it and quit to London where he hooked up again with some of the British jazzers with whom he’d recorded his ‘But It’s Alright’ hit but took a more progressive path on J.J. Jackson’s Dilemma.

5.  C.C.S – ‘Sunrise’ (1970)

Alexis Korner’s bluesy big band project where given an extra dimension by having classically trained John Cameron (he of ‘Kes’ fame) arrange their debut LP. C.C.S still for the most part kick arse but Cameron is unmistakable on the woodwind parts of this.

6.  George Duke – ‘Au Right’ (1971)

Opening track from The Inner Source and the Duke is getting frisky on his Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric piano. Do you feel au right? Yes George.

7.  CAN – ‘I’m So Green’ (1972)

Make these proto-baggy greens part of your five-a-day.

8.  Jimmy Castor Bunch – ‘It’s Just Begun’ (1972)

Stone cold funk classic from the big butt loving bunch.

9.  Bettye LaVette – ‘Don’t Fall Apart On Me Tonight’ (2018)

On Things Have Changed Bettye LaVette braves the treacherous waters of the Bob Dylan cover where previous washed up failures lay broken on the rocks. LaVette makes a fair fist of it and occasionally, like on this from Infidels, reveals the greatness that hid beneath the original’s terrible 80s production. “Maybe I could’ve done some good in the world instead of burning every bridge I cross”.

10.  RW Hedges – ‘Signalman’ (2018)

Released last Friday, The Hunters In The Snow is an enchanting delight from beginning to end with not one tiny morsel of fat or waste. The spooky ‘Signalman’ feels like an ancient classic chiming with the distant echo of ‘Wichita Lineman’.

DECEMBER PLAYLIST

1.  Little Nicky Soul – ‘I Wanted To Tell You’ (1964)

Handclapping, shuffling, gospel-soul dancer on the obscure and short-lived Shee Records out of New York. Little Nicky was Nichalous Faircorth and the song – with great supporting vocals – was, it’s believed, his only single. If you’re only gonna cut one record, make it a good in.

2.  Patti Labelle & the Bluebelles – ‘All Or Nothing’ (1965)

Newly signed to Atlantic Records and Patti, Cindy Birdsong, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash rewarded the label with a number 68 pop hit. By rights it should have climbed higher as not only was it their best release to date it’s everything you’d want from a sultry and dramatic girl group 45.

3.  The Sweet Three – ‘That’s The Way It Is (When A Girl’s In Love)’ (1966)

Another girl group beauty, this one written and produced by still-to-come Philadelphian legend Leon Huff. Nice flugelhorn intro and a gorgeous record from beginning to end.

4.  Pharoah Sanders – ‘The Creator Has A Master Plan’ (1969)

Judging by the squawking terror that occupies a chunk of this sprawling 33-minute epic from Karma not everything went as smoothly as the Master may have wished.

5.  Eldridge Holmes – ‘Pop, Popcorn Children’ (1969)

The fourth volume of Soul Jazz Records’ New Orleans Funk shows no sign of dwindling returns. There’s enough in the opening track to keep an old-school hip-hopper in breaks and samples for a month.

6.  Jimmy Smith – ‘Recession or Depression’ (1971)

A vocal track with sweeping strings from the Hammond maestro, sounding for all the world like he’s written the soundtrack to a Blaxploitation movie before such a thing was even in vogue: recession, depression, unemployment, inflation, rich getting richer, poor getting poorer, trying to make ends meet. An unexpected moment in Smith’s catalogue.

7.  Senseless Things – ‘Everybody’s Gone’ (1991)

Twickenham’s Pop Kids have reunited for what’s billed as a one-off show next March in Shepherd’s Bush. Saw them many times in the early 90s and revisiting their stuff now I’m reminded why. Great live band with short, fast, pogoing-punk belters with an ear for a good melody. Now all we need are for The Revs to be added to the bill.

8.  The Prime Movers – ‘Don’t Want You Now’ (1991)

Much, I’m sure, to Graham Day’s irritation his time in The Prisoners will always overshadow his other work. Listening back to the second Prime Movers album, Earth Church, it must rank alongside the best things he’s done and ‘Don’t Want You Now’ encapsulates the mean, rock and roll fuck-offness of the Mr Day we know and love.

9.  Peter Doherty – ‘She Is Far’ (2016)

It’s a pity there’s so much baggage with Doherty as it’s possible to produce some quality records out of him. New album Hamburg Demonstrations hits a high percentage of satisfying tracks. ‘Flags of The Old Regime’ is stunning and if Dexys had cut the evocative ‘She Is Far’ you’d never hear the end of it. 

10.  RW Hedges – ‘Wild Eskimo Kiss’ (2016)

They don’t make records like this anymore. Only they do. A magical, almost Orbisonesque, seasonal offering from RW Hedges ahead of a new album next year. Lovely. Listen here.

APRIL PLAYLIST

Apologies for the two-week absence. These are some of the things that’ve been on the old stereogram this month.

1. Sonny and Jaycee – “You Keep Doggin’ Me” (1958)

Harmonica man Sonny Terry taught his nephew J.C. Burris to play the blues harp from the age of seven and together – many years later - they blow a mean storm. As a bonus, click here for footage of Burris demonstrating his puppetry and hand jive skills in 1978.

2. The Rob Hoeke Rhythm & Blues Group – “When People Talk” (1966)

Hard hitting, Cuban heel stomping, Dutch beat from pianist and vocalist Rob Hoeke and his group.

3. The Misunderstood – “Find The Hidden Door” (1966)

A Yardbirdsian pop-art rave-up which almost unbelievably sat unreleased gathering dust for years. Now forms part of Love, Poetry & Revolution: A Journey Through The British Psychedelic and Underground Scenes 1966-1972, a three CD set from Grapefruit/Cherry Red Records.

4. Savoy Brown Blues Band – “The Doormouse Rides The Rails” (1967)

All the guitar virtuosity Martin Stone would bring to Mighty Baby is evident here on his self-penned track from Shake Down, the only original on the Savoy Brown Blues Band’s debut album.

5. Eddie Floyd – “That’s All” (1969)

It was sheer lunacy on the part of Stax to release 27 albums all on the same day in May 1969, meaning many fine records fell through the gaps, one being You’ve Got To Have Eddie. Admittedly it was no game-changer but it was a solid enough cruise through mainly covers, including this old Nat King Cole song given a smooth finger-clicking makeover.   

6. Dave Davies – “Creeping Jean” (1969)

The highlight of April was, of course, meeting Dave Davies and catching his show at the Barbican. His voice might now be a little shaky but he was as likeable on stage as he was off it. Dave picked a good set too including "She's Got Everything" and “Creeping Jean”, a track which deserved more than being tucked away on the flip of his 1969 single “Hold My Hand”.

7. Sonny Phillips – “Black On Black” (1970)

Sonny’s third album, Black On Black!, is a corker from start to finish. No slow blues numbers, no boring standards, just five in-the-pocket soul-jazz numbers as cool as Phillips looks on the front cover.   

8. Irene Reid – “I Must Be Doing Something Right” (1971)

Don’t know anything about Irene Reid except she cut this electric piano and funky flute dancer for Pilgrim Records.

9. The Primitives – “Rattle My Cage” (2011)

Coventry’s finest came down to the smoke for a couple of stand-alone shows at the Lexington this month. After suffering the woeful June Brides whose song delivery was as welcome as a wodge of soggy pizza leaflets smacking on a door mat, it came as a blessed relief to see The Primitives pick up their instruments. There was Paul Court, magnificent hair silhouette, like the Ronettes’ kid brother, and Tracy Tracy, twisting and turning wearing a pair of glittering gold kitten ears. With a set neatly balanced with old classics and second-era Prims they have an innate understanding that pop music is built on both style and substance. The three brand new songs bode well for the next album.

10. RW Hedges – “A Broken Heart” (2014)

New release on Uxbridge’s Balcony Records from local troubadour RW Hedges. Lovely production and banjo-led instrumentation with a melody which soon nestles in the brain.