Richard Hawley says his hometown has a big influence on his music: "I know if I moved anywhere else I'd lose the mojo."
Richard Hawley is not exactly doing what you might expect a Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter and onetime guitarist for Pulp to be doing on the eve of a US tour. He's chopping firewood outside his family's home in Sheffield, England, while his 5-year-old son fields questions from a reporter over the phone about whether dad's on the premises for a scheduled interview about his critically acclaimed new album.
"I've got this American tour so I'm getting the wood in before I leave," Hawley says when he's summoned a moment later. With apologies, he turns away from the phone in the direction of the 5-year-old, who is assembling a toy with his 2-year-old brother. "Guys, how far have you got with the ambulance? Let me know when you've finished because I might be in need of it."
Far from it. After a decade of toiling in the trenches, beginning with the briefly brilliant '90s Britpop outfit the Longpigs ("It was fun for a while but it got too serious - not the music, the drugs," he says), Hawley's creative life and career now seem healthier than ever. His previous album, 2005's "Coles Corner," was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize, a hip alternative to the industry-dominated BRIT Awards.
The release of "Lady's Bridge" here in October (it was issued in the United Kingdom in August), a wistful, elegant collection of dark-hued chamber pop anchored by Hawley's cordial, crooning baritone, has prompted even more accolades. GQ anointed it "a stormy masterpiece . . . his finest album yet." Spin called it "timeless." British radio played the disc's euphoric first single, "Tonight the Streets Are Ours," constantly.
"It's always funny when people say things to me like that," says Hawley, who comes to T.T. the Bear's Tuesday. "You know, I'm just a little guy in Sheffield."
If it's possible to be quietly proud of his successes, yet fiercely modest, Hawley manages the trick. "One day [former Jam frontman] Paul Weller phoned me up. We were doing this festival together in Valencia and I'd never spoken to him before in my life and he's somebody I've admired and he said, 'Would you get up and play "Just Like the Rain" from the last album with us?' It was weird to go on stage with him, but it was great for me as a journeyman musician who's been around the block more times than a taxi waiting for Paris Hilton."
Like "Coles Corner," whose title referred to a landmark lovers' meeting place in Sheffield, "Lady's Bridge" is a grandly sumptuous, starlit affair, plumed with strings and melodies that crest and swoon. As with its predecessor, it also nods to a piece of iconic Sheffield geography - this time, the oldest bridge in the city where Hawley says his family has lived for "at least 200 years." When he's writing - which is nearly always - his hometown gives Hawley a calming sense of place, and peace.
"I don't know what it's like to live in Paris or Boston or Albuquerque or LA - but I do know what it's like to live in Sheffield, having lived here all my life," he says. "It's a backdrop in my mind. The music I've loved over the years - like Iggy Pop, his stuff is so informed by Detroit; or Lou Reed and New York; or the Sun stuff, which is so Memphis - it couldn't be made anywhere else. I know if I moved anywhere else I'd lose the mojo."
Even the cover of "Lady's Bridge" depicts Hawley at yet another Sheffield institution - the legendary Club 60, where the songwriter's musician father backed blues titans such as John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim, and Muddy Waters at the dawn of the early '60s British Beat movement.
Hawley credits his father, who died this year, with keeping him grounded, dating back to the days when the fledgling singer-songwriter began performing in Sheffield's working-class pubs at age 14.
"Having played pretty much the musical extremes - in front of three disinterested old-age pensioners on a Sunday afternoon to headlining Glastonbury - the thing it taught me was, never take yourself too seriously," says Hawley. "I'm pretty aware that I could end up playing in front of those old-age pensioners again, real soon." He laughs heartily. "Hey, at least I've got a core audience!"
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
