PRE-ORDER Hayden Pedigo "I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away" [Oklahoma Sky Blue] (EOE Exclusive) LP

THIS IS A PRE-ORDER ITEM

This will be available for pick up on or after the release date of 6/6/25. Items ordered to ship will be shipped with the intent to arrive on that date.

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End of an Ear Exclusive Oklahoma Sky Blue LP - LIMITED TO 100

 

Hayden Pedigo: man, myth, master of disguise; un-picker, finger-picker, absurdist, perfectionist. The unorthodox contender for Amarillo City Council, subject of the film Kid Candidate, and creator of the acclaimed Letting Go (2021) and The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored (2023) now embarks upon the release of his new album I’ll Be Waving as You Drive Away and reveals his truest self.  

 

Solidly honing in on his technical craft after two years of non-stop touring with the likes of Jenny Lewis, Devendra Banhart and Hiss Golden Messenger, Hayden Pedigo is ready to peel back the curtain and let the world in. His most emotionally candid record, more technically demanding and intricate than ever, “there’s something really human” about this release, Hayden professes. Produced by Scott Hirsch (Hiss Golden Messenger), there’s “no face paint, no blue skin, the character on the front is no longer a character — it’s actually just me. I’m trying to tell the audience, I actually want you to meet me, I want you to know who I am.”

 

Taking cues from John Fahey’s hazy, weed-and-whiskey infused, tape-loop-heavy 1966 record The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party, I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away is, reflects Hayden, not a straightforward solo guitar record. Unafraid to push the parameters of American primitive, the walls of the album’s world are fuzzed-up and glimmering. Afterall, it is vital to Hayden, to also be influenced by contemporary modern music in order not to make an esoteric, rambling solo guitar record. For example, Bladee’s Cold Visions — “a masterclass of experimental rap music” — inspired some similarities in approach, despite the artists’ distinctly different genre backgrounds.

 

The album opens on ‘Long Pond Lily’, an outsized and fragrant bloom of intent; a simultaneous echo of Hayden’s previous work and a big, blousy departure. “It’s very heavy and huge” he reflects, “the low end is rattling on it — it sounds bonkers, and feels like it’s on the verge of going off the rails. It's so maximalist, so much more energetic than anything I’ve ever written.”  The liquid metallicism and quietly cascading piano of ‘All the Way Across’ morphs into the doomy, sludgy electronics and mellotron choirs of ‘Smoked’ (inspired by Popol Vuh’s 1970s Werner Herzog soundtracks); the light touch, wings, string arrangements and glass sculptures of ‘Houndstooth’ and ‘Hermes’ are counterbalanced by the blurry Victorialand-era Cocteau Twins electric guitars of ‘Small Torch’. The title track is, says Hayden, “weirdly the least like-me song on the album; it’s doing a lot of things that I don’t think anyone’s heard in my music before. It feels like a 1950s Chet Atkins/Merle Travis picking piece, very bright, very bouncy, very on-the-nose classic. It’s like I removed all irony from my music. It’s so sincere that I think it will be startlingly sincere, jarring even, for some people.”

 

Though not initially conceived as a triptych, Letting Go, The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored and I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away (AKA “The Motor Trilogy”) have since revealed their connections to their creator. “I like being surprised, slowly solving this puzzle of my own work. Now that I’ve finished this record it feels circular: if you end I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away and start again at the first track on Letting Go, it feels like you’re re-starting the movie — but the context grows deeper.”

 

Though we finally meet the maker, tenderly look him in the eye, it is all too brief; I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away plays itself out, and with a tip of the hat, a creak of the mechanical arm, a slam of the truck door and a puff of smoke, Hayden Pedigo is gone — just as quickly as he was revealed.

 

Tracklist

1. Long Pond Lily

2. All the Way Across

3. Smoked

4. Houndstooth

5. Hermes

6. Small Torch

7. I'll Be Waving as You Drive Away

8. End Credits (Vinyl + BandCamp Only Track)