The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored

Hayden Pedigo is an enigma. As a fingerstyle guitarist, his musical sensibilities are rooted in the meandering American primitive blueprints of John Fahey and Robbie Basho, though his technique is decidedly more lyrical and at times emotional. But guitar playing is only one facet of Pedigo the artist. There is his highly publicized Amarillo City Council campaign, which he ran in 2018 and was later made into a documentary. There are the witty and quirkily costumed online personas that have netted him a sizable internet following. He has even moved into modeling high fashion for Gucci. Whats more, he has cultivated this unusual career entirely from his home in the Texas Panhandle. In the small but devoted world of instrumental guitar music, there is certainly no one like him. Taking its title from a tragicomic quip by late National Lampoon co-founder Doug Kenney, The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored is Pedigos second release for the Mexican Summer label and follows 2021s similarly curious Letting Go. On the albums cover is a vivid painting of the artist standing in front of a burning sedan, cowboy-hatted, pink-shirted, and glaring intensely at the viewer. Recorded in his current hometown of Lubbock, Texas, Pedigos seven long-form compositions are the sound of the open plains and the massive skies pressing down on them. They are at times pensive and anxious, but more often than not, quite beautiful. Standout "Looking at the Fish" begins delicately, its soft figures moving into brisker territory midway through, then trickling back to resting pace. "Elsewhere" is another highlight, aided in part by an underpinning of ambient synths and pedal steel courtesy of collaborators Trayer Tryon and Luke Schneider. "Then Its Gone" winds the set down in poignant fashion, its refrain easing out like the last traces of a sunset at the end of a long day. There is darkness in Pedigos music and even some of the wry wit that characterizes his visual aesthetic, but at its core is an enduring melodic elegance and respect for the places that inspired it. ~ Timothy Monger