Acoustic Magazine 109 Back Issue

There was a mild sense of panic as I drove up the M6 to Sheffield to write this month’s cover feature. I’d never met Richard Hawley before, though he’s been someone I’ve listened to for some time now. Roger Bucknall’s wonderful emails keep me entertained – and Richard is a regular fixture on those.
We start to survey the huge array of guitars he’s brought with him for the day – there’s a PRS Martin Simpson gifted him, Atkins, Fyldes, Martins, Gibsons, Collings, an Ibanez, and a Melodija Menges among them. His Martin and Gibson came from Replay Acoustics (more about them and a 1942 herringbone Martin D-28 on pg. 80) and the Martin (a 1936 00-17) hardly left Hawley’s side. That’s the guitar he’s photographed with on the cover and it was, without doubt, one of the best acoustics I’ve ever played – until I met that ’42 ‘bone D-28, of course, but they’re different beasts.
Hawley’s love for everything music extends beyond the instruments he plays to his late father (whose influence on him is so profound it’s hard to put into words), Martin Simpson, the Waterson family, and of course, Sheffield.
His new album Hollow Meadows embodies his love for all of the aforementioned in a set of songs that demonstrate his sophisticated songwriting with a knack for melodies only he can produce. The album follows 2012’s acclaimed Standing At The Sky’s Edge and yet despite critical recognition, Hawley has never jumped aboard a bandwagon, nor given any thought to what’s riding high in the charts. That’s not Hawley. He is a guitarist’s guitar player who has gone about building up a consistently excellent body of work – and Hollow Meadows is testament to that.