On first listen, Richard Hawley seems like an artist out of time, his baritone and reverb-y guitar sounding like it might be more at home in the 1950s or on a Back To The Future soundtrack. But listen closer to his lyrics and it soon becomes clear that there is something timeless about Hawley’s songs that transcends categorisation. OK, so they’re ostensibly love songs, and there is more actual romance in most of Hawley’s lyrics than the entire Mills & Boon back catalogue, yet they’re also real songs about real people, who grow old, fuck things up and have real regrets.
On the gorgeous, string-laden opener ‘I Still Want You’, Hawley’s voice sounds a little cracked and not quite as honeyed as in years gone by, and all the more human and heartfelt for it, even with his neat line in double entendres: “I’d only want to lower the tone but you know there’s still a little spare meat on the bone”.
Indeed, the Sheffield troubadour’s voice remains beautifully bruised, even when he’s singing about working in a slaughterhouse on ‘Long Time Down’, where the toe-tapping twang of the guitar, gorgeous backing vocals and dissection of honest, self-deprecating love combine to stunning effect on a track that’s equal parts Springsteen and Orbison, with Hank Williams as spiritual advisor. This is a special song, with more killer couplets than many songwriters would achieve in a lifetime.
There’s an angrier buzz to the guitars of ‘Which Way’, as Hawley has quite the axe to grind, yet it remains as catchy as a cold at a January nudist conference, while his six string squeezes out quite a squall, for him, on the old-fashioned ‘Heart Of Oak’. ‘Tuesday pm’ is a beautifully simple piano and vocals affair where the honesty of Hawley’s lyrics tears your heart in two.
Then there’s the warm and welcoming ‘Serenade Of Blue’, the tender acoustic soul-searching of ‘Nothing Like A Friend’ and the lovely ‘Welcome The Sun’, where the Sheffield singer sounds not unlike late period Johnny Cash, which can only be a good thing, his baritone resonating with gravitas and truth. Like the man in black, Hawley seems obsessed by trains, which feature throughout, although some of his metaphors stretch a bit thin when he gets his croon on during ‘Sometimes I Feel’.
While Hawley drafts in a host of guest musicians, from Jarvis Cocker to folk stars Norma Waterson, Nancy Kerr and the Hick Street Chip Shop Singers (a gaggle of Sheffield musicians), Hollow Meadows is all about the man himself, who just keeps getting better with age.

KEYTRACK: 'Long Time Down'