Urban legend
Hawley’s tenth takes its name from a Sheffield term of endearment.
By James McNair.
When love comes to town: Richard Hawley – a true romantic who continues to enchant.
Dean Chalkley
Richard Hawley ★★★★
In This City They Call You Love
BMG. CD/DL/LP
IT’S A SIMPLE but seductive theory: the older the recording, the more magic locked within. Seemingly down with that notion, Richard Hawley has long repurposed the spirit of ’50s and ’60s balladry with style and great affection, his quiff, tailoring and fondness for the lonesome twang of a Gretsch guitar badges of nostalgic allegiance. Tapping influences from both sides of the Atlantic, and viewing the topography and humanity of his native Sheffield through the prism of yesteryear’s special sauce, Hawley hit peak wide-screen wistfulness on 2005’s Coles Corner. A true romantic then, but 2009’s Truelove’s Gutter, with its themes of loss and mourning, was sometimes black as the Kellingley colliery pit shaft; a sobering, if beautiful dose of social realism.