A marked departure from her debut album, Edwina’s follow-up to Out On My Own sees her presenting a far more intimate collection of songs. For the most part it’s just her and her acoustic guitar.
Save for appearances from Carissa Broadwater and guitarist Jake McKeague, guest musicians this time around are few and far between, yet Pour Me A Drink triumphs so defiantly because there’s quite simply nothing to distract the listener from the breathtaking range of Edwina’s voice. The gently finger-picked and strummed melodies are appropriately fragile, lending a rare strain of melancholy to her songs that make them devastatingly moving. Honesty is always the best policy, and Edwina evidently realizes as much. Her lovelorn lyrics cut straight to the bone, with the exquisite Run - co-written with Carissa Broadwater - opening proceedings.
The aching and longing that pervades Leave A Light on For You has been captured perfectly, while Edwina’s cover of Richard Thompson’s Waltzing’s For Dreamers proves just how skilled she is at interpreting other people’s songs. Indeed, Edwina made the conscious decision to include a couple of covers on Pour Me A Drink in order to make the release better reflect her live shows: she often slips songs, by all manner of Country and Folk singers into her sets. A corking rendition of the traditional Froggie Went A Courting also makes its presence felt.
Season Of Love, Call Me and the title track itself are further examples of emotion-packed songwriting at its finest. Heartbreakingly introspective yet emotionally uplifting, Edwina crafts songs that never fail to touch a nerve.
Having written songs inspired by personal experience from time spent living in the United States and the UK, she allows her voice to breathe life into her lyrics with a maddening passion, knowing when to adjust the pace and mood of her graceful melodies accordingly.
Pretty Lady is something of a surprise, subtly edging into Acoustic-Pop territory through being so catchy, yet it’s the final track, her sublime Irish Waltz, that’s the icing on the cake. Given that Edwina’s previously lived in Nashville, Americana music has naturally had a huge impact on the type of songs she pens. Fortunately, this results in Edwina’s music being a winsomely original blend of genres, anchored as always by her distinctive voice that could have the likes of Alison Krauss and Kate Rusby weeping into their mics were they to hear it.
Released on her own label, Twirly Music, Pour Me A Drink is destined to attract new fans aplenty.
Steve Rudd www.thisisull.com.
Edwina Hayes’ second album, Pour Me A Drink, finds her eschewing the highly produced sound of her debut release for a delightfully intimate, acoustic offering. The decision to record a stripped-back sound pays dividends on Hayes’ exquisite self-penned material, allowing plenty of room for Hayes’ gentle guitar picking and unrelentingly beautiful voice. The gentle melancholy of Hayes’ mellow folk-pop couldn’t sound better.
Songs like "Run" and "I Won’t Say Your Name" positively ache with the weight of longing and sorrow, though Hayes’ sublime vocals ensure that it’s a bittersweet affair throughout, with the unerring comfort of her sweet tones. The title track is a delicious bluesy saunter that wears its world-weary heart well and truly on its sleeve, with a refrain that almost sighs with resignation: "Pour me a drink / light me a cigarette / help me forget / the things that I’ve done."
In a nice touch, the last pages of the CD booklet are scattered with the names of an assortment of Hayes’ favourite artists, ranging from the likes of Van Morrison and Nanci Griffith to those who are still paying their dues in folk clubs up and down the country. Hayes also nods towards the influence of others with the inclusion of a couple of covers: Randy Newman’s "Feels Like Home" and a heartbreaking interpretation of Richard Thompson’s "Waltzing’s For Dreamers." A somewhat playful rendition of the traditional song, "Froggie Went A Courting," also appears.
For those already familiar with Hayes’ winsome writing talents and seductive vocals, Pour Me A Drink provides the opportunity to fall in love all over again; for those discovering Hayes for the first time, it will surely be a case of love at first sight.
Mike Wilson www.folking.com.
It's not every day you get to see a world-class singer-songwriter perform in Driffield. Similarly, it's rare for the singer-songwriter in question to actually live in town.
But then Edwina Hayes, despite her profile and enviable acquaintances in the music industry, is thoroughly modest and down-to-earth. She doesn't seem the type of person to expect front-page headlines even when they're due. Hence her latest low-key performance at Driffield Folk Club.
Having lived in cities as far-flung as London and Nashville, Edwina presently calls Driffield home. And, almost a year to the day since she last took to the Folk Club's humble stage, she returned to play a mixture of songs from her debut album, Out On My Own, and her brand-new release, Pour Me A Drink.
'It's a poor marketing strategy, but I've only got four copies of my new album for sale,' she guffawed, acknowledging the merchandise desk at the back of the venue. As self-deprecating as ever, Edwina perpetually peppers her shows with anecdotes aplenty, all of which provide an insight into the inspiration for her Country-rooted songs. Interestingly, her latest release also features a handful of covers songs, included because she strove to produce an album that reflected the nature of her live shows, given that she regularly performs songs by the likes of Gillian Welch and Nanci Griffith.
Gliding onto the stage with her Tanglewood acoustic guitar, she opened with the intimate Leave A Light On For You, clearly glad to be playing in front of so many friends and family. Blessed with a rich, full-bodied voice that perfectly captures the mood of her soul-stirring melodies, she went on to play Run and Call Me, before revealing that the title track from her latest album - Pour Me A Drink - had been partially inspired by her dad.
Delighted to have finally released her second album, Edwina said she'd love it if somebody covered one of her songs, before she plunged into a bewitching rendition of Randy Newman's Feels Like Home.
Having worked and toured with a whole host of prodigiously talented people (Boo Hewerdine, Sandi Thom and Jools Holland to name a few), she manages to remain grounded and focused, having released Pour Me A Drink on her own Twirly Music label. And while her music is undeniably anchored in the Contemporary Country genre, its flavour's blended with doses of Folk and Americana at its finest. Paying tribute to one of her biggest influences in Richard Thompson, Edwina played a sublime version of his Waltzing's For Dreamers, confiding that she - like Thompson - can't get enough of writing sad songs concerned with unrequited love. Still, it's when she's singing her own self-penned tunes that her talents really shine to blinding degrees, with the short-but-sweet Bend In The Road and Open The Show proving to be set highlights, as catchy and captivating as they are.
Wearing her heart on her sleeve, Edwina consistently crafts lilting ballads that encapsulate the idiosyncrasies of the human condition, and everybody's desire to be desired.
When you can count Michael Parkinson and Bob Harris amongst your fans, it's safe to say that you must be doing something right. Having had her songs featured on radio shows presented by such aforementioned luminaries, it's clear that Edwina Hayes is a supremely talented singer-songwriter to be reckoned with. On record, she's incredible; in person, she's unbelievable.
And to think, she lives in Driffield!
Now just imagine if we had an Arts Centre to call our own, where she could play to her heart's content...
Steve Rudd www.thisisull.com.
A DRIFFIELD musician whose career is going at full speed ahead has praised her home town's commitment to live music.
Solo acoustic musician, Edwina Hayes, has recently embarked on her first headline tour and is looking forward to playing a Driffield venue in March. The singer-songwriter, who returned to Driffield several years ago after spending time in London and abroad, is impressed with the increasing number of pubs and other venues which are putting on live music events. "I have travelled all over but came back here three years ago. It's nice to play in Driffield because I only have to walk down the road," she said. "I am glad there is more music here now and places to play. It is really good that people are keeping live music going, because otherwise people like me would have nowhere to play."
Edwina started her most recent tour, promoting her new album Pour Me a Drink due to be released next month, at the beginning of the year and said her new material has been going down very well with audiences. She is also playing several dates supporting Nashville songwriter Gretchen Peters. Edwina said she likes to be able to bring the songs she writes to people without using a record label as a middleman, favouring inter-net networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, and playing lots of gigs to reach fans. In her opinion, it is possible, and even preferable, to enter the music industry without a recording contract dictating how things should be done - she prefers to do things in her own way. "You don't need to put yourself at the mercy of a record company. The plays I had on the radio had nothing to do with a record company," she said. "Artists such as myself are learning that you don't need a record deal any more. They tend to make a song into something completely different to what you are."
Edwina describes Pour Me a Drink as "the album I really wanted to make with a guitar and my voice." She added: "When someone buys my album I want them to hear what they've heard at my gigs. It's very simple." Once the tour is over, Edwina plans to spend time writing material for her next album and splitting her time between hereand other parts of the world, such as Nashville. She said: "This is my first headline tour and after this I plan to spend a few months working on new songs and that kind of thing. I was living in Nashville for a while and will probably go back, if I can afford it."
The self-taught singer-songwriter first picked up a guitar at school and continued to play when her family moved from Preston in Lancashire to Bridlington in 1994. She cut her teeth playing cover songs at Bridlington Folk Club in the mid-1990s until she moved to London in 1999 and started performing her own songs at open mic nights.
Edwina's tour is taking her to scores of venues up and down the country between now and April, including The Junction in York on February 24, The Tiger's Lair in Hull on February 27, Driffield Folk Club at the Blue Bell on Riverhead on March 1 and The Processed Pea in Etton on April 1.
the Driffield Post www.driffieldtoday.co.uk.
What were you like at school?
I was quite sensible and clever at school! I went to a lovely school full of inspiring teachers and feel very lucky to have had such a great start in life. I was a prefect and also did public speaking and was forever performing in school plays and concerts.
What would you tell your 18-year-old self if you could go back in time?
I would advise my 18-year-old self not to start smoking, and to buy some property!
Are you multi-lingual?
I speak a little conversational Spanish but I haven't written a song in any other language. I actually am not too keen on songs in English that suddenly break into a verse in another language. I love traditional songs from around the world but I like songs to be the same language all the way through please.
Do you have a tattoo?
I don't have a tattoo, but have always fancied one. Amy and I were chatting about maybe getting a little one of a Hummingbird so I may do that!
The worst job I've ever worked was as a pizza chef in Cairns, during a year's working holiday in Australia when I was nineteen. It was a 24-hour place and was a tiny shop, with three staff per day doing an eight hour shift each. The thing that made it awful was that the tiny kitchen was infested with cockroaches and as the manager was used to employing a string of backpackers on a temporary basis, he would pop in several times a day to make sure you were working hard! I did the 8am to 4pm shift and so had to prepare all the ingredients during the morning, which involved using a huge and terrifying metal machine to slice all the veg for the pizza toppings, and also preparing mountains of pizza dough. It was horrendous and I was thrilled to get a job working in a souvenir shop shortly after starting, so I didn't have to work there for too long!
What's your favourite quote?
"I'd rather have nothing than settle for less" (Warren Beatty to Dustin Hoffman in the film 'Ishtar'). 'Ishtar' is my favourite film and was one of about twelve videos available to rent from the Spar across the road when I was fifteen. I think I rented it out about 57 times while pretending to revise for my GCSEs, and I recently found it again on Amazon. It's still the funniest thing I've ever seen! Apparently it was desperately unpopular and a huge box office flop, which kind of makes me love it even more!
What's the biggest problem facing the world today?
I think the biggest problem facing the world today is the same problem that was facing it yesterday and that is mankind and our capacity to create and destroy, divide and conquer. It's not really our fault though, as we are simply evolution in action and what will be will be. But there is so much suffering in the world that it's sometimes quite staggering to comprehend. I don't know how we can address this as our society is dominated and regulated by power, corruption and greed. The only thing one can do is to be the best person they can possibly be and hope for the best.
What's your biggest fear?
I don't really have one big fear that I can think of but the thought of anything happening to my family and friends is probably the scariest thing I can imagine.
Would you rather see a ghost or simply have a piece of toast and watch the evening news?
Toast please. With just butter!
If you had to pick one song from your repertoire to represent your entire body of work, which one would you choose and why?
I would probably say I Want Your Love as I'm a big fan of love songs, in particular the theme of unrequited love. My favourite songs to listen to and sing by other artists are love songs, and I think that I Want Your Love reflects that.
What's your favourite song to cover and why?
My favourite song to cover is Feels Like Home by Randy Newman because it's such a beautiful song and such a joy to sing. Also, I like playing it to people who haven't heard it before as I think that everyone should hear Randy Newman's songs, as they're so fantastic.
Do you have an instrument you'd still like to learn? What's stopping you?
I would love to learn to play the piano. I would love to be able to compose songs on a keyboard and have always fancied the idea of being a piano player in a lovely piano lounge, Billy Joel style. I don't know what's stopping me – where's the Yellow Pages? I'm booking a lesson today! What's been the best moment of your career so far?
The best moments of my career so far, for me, have been what I would call the "small victories". Moments that have not necessarily been important career wise, but which meant the world to me. They include Jools Holland signing the back of my guitar at one of the shows I did with him and Nanci Griffith sneaking out onstage to sing backing vocals with me at one of the gigs I did supporting her, Fab stuff!
Which artist would you most like to work with?
Bob Dylan, I would love to write a song with him, or just play some music with him. Actually a chat and a coffee with him would be fine, I basically would just like to be his new best friend.
What have you done today to make you feel proud?
Today I hosted a songwriting workshop with nine teenagers. They all started writing new songs which we will finish in a second session next week. It was really inspiring and wonderful to have a hand in helping young musicians.
What kind of person would have sex to your music?
Goodness, I have no idea! Although they'd obviously be a person with excellent taste in music!
Tick tock, tick tock. What you waiting, what you waiting for?
I am waiting for true love and a call from Bob Dylan asking me to be the opening act on his Never Ending Tour. Ha! Trevor Raggatt www.thetrousers.co.uk .
Only a few days previous she'd been supporting country star Nanci Griffith, yet Edwina Hayes was as down-to-earth as ever when she made a most welcome return to Driffield Folk Club on Saturday night. Mixing material from her debut album, Out On My Own, along with some fantastic cover songs, Edwina's enchanting charms immediately had the Folk Club crowd engaged, not least because of the many witty anecdotes about her life - both on personal terms and concerned with her life on the road - that she enthusiastically recounted. Despite currently being part of a trio called Hummingbird, Edwina is also renowned as a solo singer-songwriter, and tonight's show saw her take to the stage immaculately dressed in black with just her beloved Tanglewood acoustic guitar for company. From the off, her relaxed confidence shone through, whether singing her own songs in her own inimitable style, or breathing new life into old classics which included Randy Newman's 'Feels Like Home' and John Prine's 'Sound of The Speed of Loneliness.'
It's long been Edwina's wish to open for Bob Dylan, who is often regarded as the founding father of the Folk music movement. Although she might not have opened for Bob (yet), she has supported plenty of big-names stars in the past few years such as Van Morrison, Daniel Beddingfield and Sandi Thom.
One glance at Edwina's gig calendar for the rest of 2007 goes to show that she regularly plays the length of breadth of England, making this relatively rare appearance in Driffield all the more special. Having supported Nanci Griffith in Milton Keynes and London earlier in the week, Edwina gushed that it made a refreshing change to be able to literally just drive 'down the road' in her trusted Micra to play, living as she now does in Driffield.
Because she spends so much time on the road, driving to and from gigs, it seemed inevitable that some of her songs have themes of travelling at their soulful heart. For the most part though, her songs are love songs, brought to life by way of her undeniably angelic voice and exceptional melodies, either expertly finger-picked or strummed on her guitar. Many such love songs, she revealed, have been born out of some quite embarrassing scenarios involving a multitude of crushes that she's had on men in the past, one or two of whom she met when she lived in Nashville for a two year period. During this time Stateside she coincidentally met the ex-partner of songwriter John Prine while she was working in a restaurant in the city, a story that provided another fascinating insight into Edwina's extraordinary life. Another anecdote involving one of her musical heroes in Richard Thompson was shared, too. Edwina met Richard at Cropredy Music Festival, where she plucked up the courage to go and speak to him. All went well until she admitted to him that she often hoovered whilst listening to one of his songs: a fact that he seemed bemused by. As a result, Edwina self-deprecatingly re-iterated the belief that it's often best to never meet your heroes: It's not that they'll let you down; it's that you'll let yourself down!
The majority of Edwina's songs are mid-paced wonders, yet her anthemic Closer To Home cunningly borders on Pop territory given its catchy chorus, whilst still being firmly rooted in Folk and Country territory. Even my faster songs tend to be downtempo, she lamented with a laugh at one point. Regardless of the pace or tone of her songs, every last one that she performed was nothing short of stunning. Other highlights from her own back catalogue included the spellbinding Won Me Over, I Can't Believe and Want You To Stay, the latter song of which comes complete with the great lyric, And here I am, with my heart on the line, I'd rather look a fool than never have tried.
Come her encore, in the form of Don McLean's 1972 hit Vincent, I had to admit that - when all had been said and sung - it had been the best night out I'd had in Driffield for years.
For more information about Edwina and forthcoming gigs, visit www.edwinahayes.com.
Steve Rudd www.thisisull.com.
Ambitious: Edwina Hayes
Open mic nights get their fair amount of stick, but in a UK music scene otherwise ruled by Simons (Fuller and Cowell), the acoustic circuit is the last bastion of democracy.
Anyone with a guitar and a dream can turn up and once their name is on the list, it's up to them to convert their floor spot into a big break.
One star to rise through such ranks is Edwina Hayes, who returns to the Halfmoon this Sunday with fellow singer-songwriter Sam Semple, replacing Hayes' friend Ivor Game who was to play.
"Funnily enough," she recalls, "Ivor was at the first acoustic gig I ever walked into in London, at the Playpen in Earls Court. It was November 1999 and I took my guitar along hoping I could do a couple of songs. "When I went back the following week, he was headlining and I ended up going every week for a year."
Another Playpen baby of the period was KT Tunstall, earning a not-to-be-sniffed-at £30 a spot. "But her stuff was a lot more ballady in those days," says Hayes, "not quite as rocky as she is now."
Hayes' material could never be classed as rocky - her voice on debut album Out on My Own as sweet as honey in your tea and her music, folk-tinged ballads with a shot of Jack Daniels country attitude. Dublin-born and Preston raised, she has divided the last six years between London and Nashville, working the acoustic scene in both cities.
"I first went over there in 2000, but it was never to be a big country music star," she says of Tennessee. "I fell in love with the place and its musical community. There's a real coffee shop culture, similar to the London circuit, but it's a lot easier to work a few shifts and write at the same time."
It was out in the States that Hayes first met her longtime idol Nancy Griffiths, with whom she has just toured for a second time. Jools Holland, Van Morrison, Loudon Wainwright III and Daniel Beddingfield are other acts she has supported over the past year.
What of her future ambitions? "I want to make a second album," says the 33-year-old. "The first one got a lot of support from Bob Harris and Michael Parkinson, but it didn't make the Radio 2 playlist. A big break would be brilliant, of course, but I'm going to keep doing this forever."
In the meantime, her song, I Want Your Love, has featured on the best- selling compilation Acoustic Love, alongside Daniel Powter, Dido and the ubiquitous James Blunt. "I was thrilled to be included on it," says Hayes, "especially because my song was two tracks away from Bob Dylan. "My greatest ambition would be opening for Bob Dylan, writing a song with him, basically being his best friend! But if I got run over by a bus tomorrow, at least I could say I was on the same CD as him." Nancy Groves