Between his mournful baritone and spidery guitar lines, Richard Hawley makes a lasting impression as both a solo artist and a hired hand. Born in Sheffield in 1967, Hawley was raised by musical parents and later skirted the Britpop boom while playing guitar with Longpigs in the mid-1990s. When that band ended after two albums, Hawley lent his subtly expressive axe to Pulp for several years then set out as a wider collaborator, guesting with such kindred spirits as Elbow, Manic Street Preachers and Arctic Monkeys. He slipped just as easily into arrangements for high-wattage pop stars like Gwen Stefani and Robbie Williams and legacy acts like Nancy Sinatra and Duane Eddy. By contrast, solo albums like 2005’s Coles Corner and 2009’s Truelove’s Gutter put him front and centre, often playing the part of a rain-soaked crooner searching for redemption.