“Hadnot Creek has established itself as a prolific, personality-filled vehicle for good old fashioned outsider folk music,” we wrote of Robert Sawrey’s project back in April, with latest album The End of the Road continuing an “authentic, idiosyncratic style with equal parts heart and invention” which “fans of the likes of James McMurty are sure to find much to love, Hadnot Creek sketching a decidedly existential picture of life and death without losing a toe-tapping rhythm.” An array of collaborators helped Sawrey bring the sound to life, with Ben Laderberg (Kendall Street Company), Zach Samel, Lee Sargent and Tyler Sargent (former members of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah), Colin Lagenus (USA is a Monster), Austin Patterson, Jimmy Williams and Stavros Calos all lending their talents, and the result is something that’s able to achieve real richness without sacrificing any of the personal intimacy which gives Hadnot Creek songs their charm.
So far singles ‘River of Love’ and the title track have introduced The End of the Road, both songs highlighting Sawrey’s ability to conjure narrative depth within relatively short spaces of time. Take the latter, a reflective track which drew on a pair of real world memories (a camping trip to Vermont back in 1976 and the loss of an old friend) to “paint a picture of a man at the dead of night,” as we put it. “A person lost in the wilderness or else the dark twists of his own head and confessing as much as plainly as he knows how.”
With the record now out, Hadnot Creek has shared ‘Thirty One’ as a final single, and the track serves as the embodiment of everything achieved across the record. An entire life distilled into nine short verses. A life ended prematurely, granted, but an entire life nonetheless. The concision of Sawrey’s lyricism typical of the deceptive depth which runs through his work. A style that’s mirrored in the sound itself, with what at first appears a relatively stripped back folk arrangement blooming into something which rich and intricate.