Featuring a stunning cast of musicians, Jim Ghedi announces his new album ‘Wasteland’. Directed by Jordan Carroll, watch the dramatic title track video, an entirely original composition that pushes the boundaries of what folk music can be in 2025.
Jim Ghedi‘s last solo album, In the Furrows of Common Place, was released in 2021, a stunning and enduring album with ‘bags of passion, creativity and precision’. Since then, he has released a stunnning self-titled album with Toby Hay, described by KLOF Mag’s Glenn Kimpton as diverse and dynamic, ebbing and flowing like a river, evoking nature and, amongst other work, collaborated with Cinderwell (Amelia Baker) as well as East London’s Stick In The Wheel.
Ghedi has never shied away from issues relating to nature and the environment or poverty and societal issues. This was strongly evidenced by last year’s Stick in the Wheel collaboration: What Will Become of England, a world weary enraged lament at the state of nation. His ability to channel angst into a powerfully, emotive moving force where the ancient and modern collide is remarkable. His own songs and poetry (A Sprig of Yarrow) attest to this. His interpretations are balanced by empathy and understanding, something you can clearly hear on his powerful interpretation of Ed Pickfords Ah Cud Hew, and to his soundtrack that accompanied The Estate, a project by photographer Laura Merrill that explored green spaces within four council and social housing estates in Sheffield.
If you take away one important aspect from his past work, it’s his obligation to create meaningful work that reflects real life issues today – something that has historically been an important part of folk music. His new album, Wasteland (Released 21st February 2025 on Basin Rock), may be his most bold, ambitious and fervent expression of this to date – pushing the boundaries of what folk music can be in 2025.
“Wasteland is about the idea of a place once known or familiar that is now broken down and unrecognisable,” says Ghedi. “It’s about exploring the process of watching someone’s surroundings and environment collapse.” And within that you have a lot going on. “It also explores death, personal loss, grief, mental health and how the natural world provides solace and meaning for that loss and how these worlds blur into one another.”
His stunning lead single ‘Wasteland’, an entirely original composition that amplifies the turbulence that shaped this dramatic masterpiece and that sets the tone for the album (Released 21st February 2025 on Basin Rock).
The accompanying video for ‘Wasteland’ was shot and directed by Jordan Carroll in various parts of the Peaks District. “The idea was initially inspired by the album artwork featuring Jim sitting in a quarry, dressed in a 17th-century gentry outfit. We asked ourselves: why is this character there, asleep on a stool? There was something fantastical about it, so we filled in the blanks and built a story around it.”
Wasteland is also our Song of the Day.
Recorded over 2 years at Tesla Studios in Sheffield, with David Glover engineering and producing, the album features a wide cast of musicians such as David Grubb (fiddle), Daniel Bridgwood-Hill (fiddle), Neal Heppleston (bass), Joe Danks (drums), Dean Honer from I Monster (synths), Cormac MacDiarmada from Lankum (vocals), Ruth Clinton from Landless (vocals) and Amelia Baker from Cinder Well (vocals).
When Ghedi began working on this album he felt a little lost, unmoored, and unstable. Unsure of himself and the world around him. “I felt very frustrated with the state of England after moving back home to Sheffield from living in Ireland for a couple of years,” he recalls. Yet while this album is one that has unquestionably come from a tricky place for Ghedi on a personal level, it’s also a record that contains flashes of hope and beauty amidst agonising demise and loss. “It was definitely quite a dark time writing the album and working on it,” he says. “But it was also a joyous and uplifting experience. There was a real positive force around it and it felt quite cathartic and so much energy and enthusiasm was getting put into it. Also, I think this album is the closest I’ve got to the sound I’ve been working towards over the years. It feels like it’s at a place which most represents me.”
Released 21st February 2025 on Basin Rock
Pre-Order Wasteland: https://jimghedi.bandcamp.com/album/wasteland
Wasteland tracklisting
1. Old Stones
2. What Will Become of England
3. Newtondale / Blue John
4. Wasteland
5. Just A Note
6. Sheaf & Feld
7. Hester
8. The Seasons
9. Wishing Tree
10. Trafford Road Ballad
Jim Ghedi March 2025 Tour dates:
04/03/2025 Leeds, The Attic
06/03/2025 Sheffield, Sidney and Matilda
07/03/2025 Manchester, Gullivers
11/03/2025 London, Moth Club
15/03/2025 Falmouth, Cornish Bank
+ more TBA
