Today, Jim Ghedi and Toby Hay, two of the UK folk scene’s finest guitarists, announce their self-titled, second collaborative album, out May 26th on Topic Records. In anticipation, the duo release the album’s first single, ‘Bright Edge Deep’ which serves as a perfect introduction to a record that is, somehow, greater than the sum of its singular talents.
On the track, Jim Ghedi explains that “‘Bright Edge Deep’ was taken from a Seamus Heaney poem ‘Digging’ and was the first track we wrote on this album, following a near two-year break from playing together due to the pandemic.”
So fitting then, that the track is also the opener to such a lush, immediate and inarguably authentic album. With a spartan setup of just two guitars, Ghedi on the six-string and Toby on the twelve, the sessions that became the album were recorded live over 3 days at Giant Wafer Studios, Mid Wales.
The result is an album that, totally unspoiled, captures so much space with such minimal source, speaks loudly with tenderness, and highlights the articulacy of their combined artistry. The album follows their revered 2018 release, The Hawksworth Grove Sessions, which brought their sounds together on record for the very first time.
Jim Ghedi and Toby Hay are both prolific, praised and established artists in their own right. Hailing from South Yorkshire, Ghedi’s previous work has often been instrumental, exploring the natural world and his relationship to it, as seen on 2018’s A Hymn For Ancient Land, but also developing into using his voice, songwriting and traditional material on his more recent album, In The Furrows Of Common Place. Toby Hay, hailing from the Cambrian mountains, professes likewise, that the landscape serves as an eternal muse and the spiritual groundwork of his entrancing guitar playing, which has dazzled critics and listeners alike throughout his career. All of this makes their collaboration with the world’s oldest independent label and custodians of UK folk music, Topic Records, a natural home for this exceptional record.
I first came across Toby’s music in 2013 via Bandcamp. Our much-missed reviewer Nick Dellar, himself a talented fingerstyle guitarist, later reviewed Toby’s 2016 Birds EP, and was struck by his twelve-string technique and his delightful music. In 2017, we interviewed Toby ahead of his debut album, The Gathering, which Folk Radio’s Thomas Blake summed up in his review as “A beautiful, frank and mysterious statement”. The following year, inspired by touring on the road together, Toby Hay and Jim Ghedi put to tape an intriguing set of ten tracks. Glenn Kimpton, also a fingerstyle guitarist, described The Hawksworth Grove Sessions as a lovely album; calming, rousing and beautifully played throughout. We again interviewed Toby in 2019 to discuss New Music for the 12 String Guitar on which he spoke about his music and the instrument specially made for that project…a Fylde twelve-string guitar, made with ‘Macassar Ebony and Englemann Spruce, resulting in a very responsive piece with a big voice and broad range.’
I came across Jim a little later in 2016 when we premiered a video ahead of a 15-date tour with Scottish guitarist Douglas Macgregor. It was his 2018 album ‘A Hymn for Ancient Land’, just ahead of his duo album with Toby, which really took hold of me…described by Glenn Kimpton as “a small masterpiece, a homage of sorts to the subtleties of nature, place and space.” Then in 2021, he released, what I still consider to be one of my favourite albums of all time: ‘In the Furrows of Common Place’ in which he stepped up to the mark as he brought into focus unrest and austerity. No other album has compared to it since.
When Topic told me about this release, I was transported in my mind to another album, one produced by Bill Leader and released in 1966, Bert & John, the self-titled offering from Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. That album is now legendary, and I have no doubt that this new offering from Jim and Toby will also become a folk classic for future generations.
The album’s CD/digital release will be supported by a series of very special launch event shows, soon to be announced.
Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay (CD/digital) is out May 26th on Topic Records.
The vinyl album will follow later this year.
TSCD615 (CD) | TXLP615 (LP)
More from the duo:
http://www.jimghedi.com/ | https://jimghedi.bandcamp.com/music
https://tobyhay.com/ | https://tobyhay.com/music