Biography
During the closing years of the 1960s, Rick Hayward—performing at the time under the name Rick Birkett—served as guitarist for the Accent on their acclaimed though commercially overlooked 1967 British psychedelic single “Red Sky at Night”/“Wind of Change.” He soon made a brief attempt to assemble a group with Rod Argent, who had only recently left the Zombies, and a handful of demos were captured before the effort dissolved. Failing to yield further results, the collaboration led Hayward into session duties for the British blues-rock label Blue Horizon, after which he joined the bands of Christine Perfect (later Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac) and Jellybread while also appearing live with Keef Hartley. In April 1971 he cut a self-titled solo album for Blue Horizon whose gently wistful British folk-rock and singer/songwriter tone found him performing every instrument himself, his guitar foremost among them. The instrumental selections in particular showcased a folk-blues-jazz guitar approach comparable to that of Davy Graham and Bert Jansch. Sunbeam reissued the album on CD in 2007, appending eleven previously unreleased instrumental tracks cut shortly afterward for a never-issued second LP.
Albums