Posted by Liz and John Attaway, 11/9/25

Texas-born and Oklahoma City-based fingerstyle guitarist Hayden Pedigo released his remarkable and genre-defying new album I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away earlier this year via Mexican Summer, which Pitchfork named as Best New Music. He’s now gearing up for his headline tour and will play Masquerade (Altar) in Atlanta on 12/3.

“warm, patient and uplifting” – THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Brilliant” – NPR MUSIC

“We’re lucky that Hayden Pedigo stumbled upon the footsteps of John Fahey and followed them into the deep wordless wood.” – GILLIAN WELCH

“Refined compositional craft and well-executed technique” – PREMIER GUITAR

“studious and inventive…an honesty and understanding of self here that feels refreshing, especially amid so much fingerstyle traditionalism.” – PITCHFORK

“The list of human beings who have conjured this much beauty from steel strings and some wood is short, and Pedigo is on it.” – BANDCAMP

“one of the world’s best guitarists” – PASTE

“[Pedigo] redefines the term “renaissance person.”” – STEREOGUM

Texas-born and Oklahoma City-based fingerstyle guitarist Hayden Pedigo announces his remarkable and genre-defying new album I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away, out June 6th via Mexican Summer. Since the release of his 2023 record, The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored, Pedigo earned widespread critical acclaim, performed a stunning NPR Tiny Desk Concert, toured non-stop with the likes of Jenny Lewis, Devendra Banhart and Hiss Golden Messenger, and more. He then decamped on a 20,000-acre ranch at an artist residency in Wyoming to write his new album, which he’d later record in Ojai with Scott Hirsch and name for a “pretty devastating” episode of Little House on the Prairie from 1978. The resulting album, I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away, is the final installment of what Pedigo has dubbed ‘The Motor Trilogy’ – his three latest solo albums, tied together by their vehicular Jonathan Phillips artwork. An innovator of the instrumental genre, challenger of the stereotypical, and son of a truck-stop preacher, Pedigo has crafted an intentionally maximalist, genre-resistant work of warped instrumental Americana on this release, which he calls “a micro-dose psychedelic album…as if somebody had cut up a tab of LSD and put on a Fahey record.” 

Out today is the album opener, “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 says of the song, “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.” Accompanied by a cinematic music video by Matt Muir that manages to make opening a small-town scaregrounds feel like the American Dream, “Long Pond Lily” is out now HERE. 

Tour dates

05/12/25 – Berklee Performance Center – Boston, MA*

05/14/25 – Kings Theatre – Brooklyn, NY*

05/17/25 – Miller Theater – Philadelphia, PA*

05/18/25 – Warner Theatre – Washington, DC*

08/26/2025 – London – Kings Place

08/28/2025 – Manchester – St. Michael’s

08/29/2025 – Larmer Tree Gardens – End of The Road Festival

08/30/2025 – Cardiff – Clwb Ifor Bach

09/01/2025 – Dublin – The Grand Social

09/02/2025 – Belfast – The Deer’s Head

09/04/2025 – Glasgow – Mono

09/05/2025 – Edinburgh – St. Vincent’s Chapel

09/06/2025 – Newcastle – The Lubber Fiend

09/07/2025 – Leeds – The Attic

09/10/2025 – Aarhus – Alter Festival

09/12/2025 – Berlin – Gretchen

09/13/2025 – Bochum – Die Trompete

09/14/2025 – Leffinge – Leffingeleuren Festival

09/16/2025 – Laval – La Guinguette le 11-22

09/17/2025 – Lyon – Le Sonic

09/18/2025 – Milano – ARCI Bellezza

09/19/2025 – Reggio Emilia – Acid Tank

09/21/2025 – Marseille – Le Molotov

09/22/2025 – Barcelona – Sala Upload

09/24/2025 – Lisboa – ZDB

09/25/2025 – Vigo – Radar Estudios

09/26/2025 – San Sebastian – Lugaritz K.E.

09/27/2025 – Bordeaux – Base Sous-Marine de Bordeaux

09/28/2025 – Paris – La Boule Noire

* denotes dates supporting Ichiko Aoba