Home Snockgrass
Michael Hurley
Snockgrass
LITA063LP
- Features Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders
- First ever reissue on vinyl for this legendary 1980 recording
- Freshly re-mastered, this LP sounds better than the CD which was mastered two decades ago
- 180 gram LP housed in Stoughton tip-on old school type jacket including faithfully reproduced original artwork by Michael Hurley
Description
Tracing the lineage and citing the fore-bearers of the New Weird America, one can’t help but mention the music of bizarre folk singer/guitarist/artist Michael Hurley. Hurley’s 1980 LP Snockgrass is a delightful singer-songwriter mix-up, with songs that switch from the serious to the satirical at the drop of a hat (sometimes in the middle of a song), which can result in unexpected laughter – the cover painting (done by Hurley himself), tends to get puzzled and startled reactions for its surreal landscape filled with naked people and instrument-playing wolves!
Tracing the lineage and citing the fore-bearers of the New Weird America, one can’t help but mention the music of bizarre folk singer/guitarist/artist Michael Hurley. If you haven’t been following his career since the 1970’s (when he was collaborating with the likes of the Holy Modal Rounders and Jesse Colin Young) then you probably discovered him in the past couple of years via Devendra Banhart’s & Andy Cabic’s label Gnomonsong, who have released Hurley’s recent recordings.
Hurley’s 1980 LP Snockgrass is a delightful singer-songwriter mix-up, with songs that switch from the serious to the satirical at the drop of a hat (sometimes in the middle of a song), which can result in unexpected laughter – the cover painting (done by Hurley himself), tends to get puzzled and startled reactions for its surreal landscape filled with naked people and instrument-playing wolves! The album features several members of the Holy Modal Rounders, including Peter Stampfel on fiddle, Dave Reisch on bass and vocals, and Robin Remaily on mandolin
Artist Bio
Michael Hurley
If you haven’t been following his career since the 1970’s (when he was collaborating with the likes of the Holy Modal Rounders and Jesse Colin Young) then you probably discovered him in the past couple of years via Devendra Banhart’s & Andy Cabic’s label Gnomonsong, who have released Hurley’s recent recordings.
Hurley’s debut album, First Songs, was recorded for Folkways Records in 1965 on the same reel-to-reel machine that taped Lead Belly’s Last Sessions. He was discovered by blues and jazz historian Frederick Ramsey III, and subsequently championed by boyhood friend Jesse Colin Young, who released Hurley’s next two album on The Youngbloods’ Warner Brother’s imprint, Raccoon. How’s that for cred?
In the 1970s, Hurley made three albums for Rounder Records; Have Moicy! (1975), Long Journey (1976), and Snockgrass (1980) which after being out of print for decades are now being reissued on Light In The Attic Records.
In recent years, tours with Son Volt and high praise from younger performers like Lucinda Williams, Vic Chesnutt, Calexico, and Cat Power, have increased Hurley’s legend.
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