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Michael Hurley

Armchair Boogie
CD $12
  • First ever CD reissue
  • Remastered by J.J. Golden (Golden Mastering) from the original master tapes
  • Deluxe Stoughton gatefold CD “tip-on” jacket
  • Includes 36 page reproduction of original cartoon book by Hurley — courtesy of Jeff Gold at www.recordmecca.com

Description

Michael Hurley is a singularly unusual singer, guitarist and artist. Following our recent re-issues of Hurley’s three albums for Rounder Records, 1975’s Have Moicy (LITA 061), 1976’s Long Journey (LITA 062) and 1980’s Snockgrass (LITA 063) we are now set to revisit some of Hurley’s earliest solo works: 1971’s Armchair Boogie and Hi Fi Snock Uptown.

Michael Hurley is a singularly unusual singer, guitarist and artist. Following our recent re-issues of Hurley’s three albums for Rounder Records, 1975’s Have Moicy (LITA 061), 1976’s Long Journey (LITA 062) and 1980’s Snockgrass (LITA 063) we are now set to revisit some of Hurley’s earliest solo works: 1971’s Armchair Boogie and Hi Fi Snock Uptown.

Recorded with Jesse Colin Young, Armchair Boogie is Hurley’s debut album proper, and the one in which he set out his stall as purveyor of charming, homely, folksy songs. It is, essentially, 14 songs about love and strange things – werewolves (‘Werewolf’), institutionalized English gentry (‘English Nobleman’) and aquatic birds (‘Penguin’) all appear. Credited to Michael Hurley and pals, Young is among the friends who appear. Largely acoustic, it features little more than the sound of Hurley’s guitar and voice and the occasional mouth trumpet.

This...

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Artist Bio

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...

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Preview Tracklist

  • 1 Werewolf
  • 2 Grand Canyon
  • 3 English Noblemen
  • 4 Be Kind to Me
  • 5 Troubled Waters
  • 6 Red Ravagers Reel
  • 7 Sweedeedee
  • 8 Open Up
  • 9 Jocko's Lament
  • 10 Light Green Fellow
  • 11 Get the Best of Me
  • 12 Biscuit Roller
  • 13 When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano
  • 14 Penguins