Hayden Pedigo, 'Letting Go'

Before he was a living meme who ran for his home town's city council — now the subject of a documentary — Hayden Pedigo started finger-picking an acoustic guitar as a teen in Amarillo, Texas. Nearly a decade after his first release, Pedigo has stretched out his sound — fewer flashy moves make way for gentler melodies, whispering into an endless sky. "Letting Go" is a slow burn, glowing auburn against pedal steel, synths and Pedigo's loping guitar as if the song's got nowhere to go, yet is compelled by unseen forces to move on. Likewise, the music video is an extension of Pedigo's many absurdist characters found on Instagram as a fish-out-of-water, corpse-painted Texan drives through Lubbock (where Pedigo moved during the pandemic) to burn away his past in a bonfire.

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