Who likes Michael Hurley?

I'm hoping to make it to the book mill show this time w/ Feathers and maybe whichever gig mr. bunnybrains is putting on if I can make it (damn those saturdays).

Oh, yes, and I certainly dig 'im as well, though he's a bit of a codger at times.

On Saturday, May 20 at 8:30 PM, some of the finest singer-songwriters
performing today will appear in concert at the historic, intimate
former church occupied by The Sanctuary For Independent Media, 3362
6th Avenue in Troy. Admission for the all-ages show featuring
Michael Hurley, Tara Jane O'Neil and Samara Lubelski is $10.

http://grown-so-ugly.blogspot.com/

lots more shows at D!MEaD0z3n right now. Amateurist, email me at sleeve (at) efn (dot) org if your'e still looking for stuff.

he just recently played his first show in Astoria since moving there a number of years back (after cancelling two previous gigs). My friend who went said it was great.

New album!! It's called Ancestral Swamp, on LP and CD. As usual there are a couple of his standard remakes but it is mostly new stuff, 5 covers, buncha blues tunes, subject matter is swamps and rivers and floods. I heard one track in a coffee shop today but haven't gotten my hands on teh LP yet.

I like it, but I haven't heard his earlier stuff yet so I don't know how it compares. Need to remedy that.

can't go wrong with Wolfways or Snockgrass or Have Moicy

New one's great. As I said on the "2007 Reissues" thread, I think it seem to be mastered more quietly and with less dynamic range than some of his older material--this makes it feel more gray and less bright than some of his older releases. Subdued is the word. But it actually fits pretty well, there aren't any tracks that really scream for an ebullient sound.

He's playing tomorrow in Astoria, an Upper Oregon Coast town about 4 hours from me. My girlfriend used to live there and we are totally road trippin it tomorrow for some live Snock action that I also plan on recording.

oh, he lives there so this is not that unusual, but it has been at least a year or two since he did a hometown gig.

Ggo go go, and let us know how it is!

If he is still selling his homemade 2CDR set with 'Land of Lo Fi & Redbirds' PICK ONE UP!

awesome!

yeah Stormy I have that one but I still need "Growlin' Bobo".

or did you want one?

no i have it but i meant to say that if you didn't you should get one cuz it's SO GOOD!

someone should burn that shit for me.

http://www.snockonews.net/images/Husbands.jpg

Armchair Boogie need a proper reissue

Dude can play a little too long live occasionally, but that's a pretty nit-picky complaint I guess

No. I agree. Hurley can be transcendent, but he can also ramble. One too many songs, in my opinion, creep into the five- and six-minute marks.

"time to pause for the cause" = smoke break.

There are usually 3 or 4 of these breaks in your average Hurley concert.

also I mentioned this on teh rolling vinyl thread but Warner are still being dicks about the 2 LPs on Raccoon, informal word from Mississippi was that they won't be allowed to reissue Armchair after all.

yeah, that's a fuckin bummer. do you know what the particular hang-up is? Blame Jesse Colin Young.

Blame his moustache!

Also: Michael Hurley can never play too long as long as you keep a steady-but-not-indulgent drinking pace.

Agreed. Plus, his pace reflects the life he lives. I've spent time in places like Bolinas in northern California. It's as if the entire town lives like one of his songs.

so last night at the store I saw that the new issue of the Wire has a piece on Michael, written by none other than Byron Coley.

Damn. I really wanna read it but I also don't wanna give 9 American bones to shitty ass Wire just for the privilege. Hm.

I got a good recording but it cut off at the best part about 70 minutes in. some great song about Alice the alcoholic, totally new to me. that's always how it is, yeah? tape cuts off right at the best part. anyway, some other dude also recorded the set. His should be up on Tr@der's D3n/3tree sometime soon. I will Leonardo my recording once I get it tracked out. MH played for about 80-90 minutes, unaccompanied. Some banjo, lotta guitar, some really nice mouth trumpet action. A couple of great songs I had never heard before, just like every time I see him.

The "Husbands, Love Your Wives" referred to in the flyer above was a young woman doing a solo set with guitar and voice. Very sweet and young and pretty capable of holding the room's interest. Her grandma lived in Astoria and MH said that she had Myspaced him (!!) and they decided to set up a show together. Her whole family was there!

Astoria was still pretty beat up from that big winter storm, two-foot diameter pine trees just snapped in half. lots more just torn up by the roots. lotta blue tarps on roofs.

I bought "Growlin' Bobo", and only have a few releases left to track down (Bellmeade Sessions, Down In Dublin, and the Excrusiasion '86 tape). Bobo is a smokin hot live set in Vermont, November 1980 (actually the best of two nights) featuring a four-piece backing band, four-part vocal harmonies, and Robin Remaily's fiddle playing. Excellent and worth your time.

I'm sitting here on my lunch break reading the Hurley piece in the Wire. Did you guys know he began sessions for an album on ESP but Stollman nixed it because of the mouth trumpet?! unbelievable.

ian have you ever read the Popwatch interview with him from a few years back?

Nooooo, I am gonna have to go dig it up!

yeah, i read that wire thing on monday and was amused by the esp thing...and surprised. what got into stollman there? i was also surprised on byrons very straight approach. there was some line about halfway through that suddenly reminded me that it was byron writing...

ill look for the popwatch bit. i was wondering on mon night if there was much else written about him

yep they're great! (n.b. I am biased)

yeah i love both of 'em. there should be more live snock releases!

there's also this one, but digital only:
https://www.discogs.com/release/18600946-Michael-Hurley-Live-Ateliers-Claus

and the Growlin'Bobo release which was originally tape and then CDr:
https://www.discogs.com/master/633398-Michael-Hurley-Growlin-Bobo

ah, don't think I've heard the ateliers one, thanks! someone should put the growlin bobo thing on LP, it's killer.

thanks. growlin bobo is so great--i really want it on vinyl for the music but having the cover art be the tape cover would be amazing.

also this one is new to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpsWd288fDI

^^ that's the gig on the Feeding Tube "Redbirds"! I think, there are two consecutive nights recorded

ooooh sweet, i just ordered Redbirds

i bought the other one too. sleeve that comp you put up is killer, thank you!

<3

Does Michael use any swear words in his songs BESIDES Slurf Song? I can't think of one.

Nat'l Weed Growers Assoc has one, I think that's it though!

oh and on the live "Blue Navigator" from Growlin' Bobo too

those FUCKin lil Martians

From a friend who talked to his manager (please refrain from sharing in print without consent):

Michael insisted on playing the Big Ears Festival in spite of not doing at all well. He came off the plane in a wheelchair and was in very bad pain. Everyone was concerned and urged him to go the hospital. He refused, saying “If I go in, I’m not coming out.” Word is the four shows he did (three in addition to Big Ears) were quite good, in spite of everything. Back on the plane to Portland via wheelchair; a friend met him at the airport and he died in the car on the way home.

fucking hero

Truly the greatest

Friends think he knew it was the end. Michael had said “I love you,” to [his manager] a couple times on the phone, something he’d never done before.

a legend <3

holy shit

damn

have we learned the cause of death? benevolent badassery?

Thanks a lot for that, Evan.

really great stuff here

https://www.furious.com/perfect/michaelhurleyrip.html

I met Michael Hurley in 1963, through Steve Weber, who I met through my ex, Antonia. Hurley had red hair, and looked like a cute idealized leprechaun, but bigger, of course. However, when I saw him a few months later, he looked like hell. Unsurprisingly, soon after this, he went into the hospital. It was months after that when I heard a knock on my door.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"A yoyo," a familiar voice replied.

I opened the door. It was Hurley. A robustly, red cheeked, healthy Hurley. Glowing, even. I was shocked.

"What happened to you?," was all I could say.

"I was really sick, so I went to the hospital. They said I had mono, TB, and a heroin habit. They told me, 'boy, are you sick,' and made me check in."

I think he said he had one or two other things as well, but I've forgotten what.

"You look great!" I said, and repeated, "What happened?"

"I got this book. Someone brought it to me in the hospital."

He handed me a paperback teach-yourself-yoga book.

"I learned to stand on my head," he said. "I started doing it on the bed, but I kept falling off, so I used the floor instead."

"Are you done with the book?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Want it?"

He handed it to me. That's when I started doing yoga.

Thanks! Stampfel's memory profile is a great compliment to Hurley's amazing two-part interview, and answers in writing seem to be perfect for him (linked herein, yall).
Democracy Now! continues (not every night, but pretty often) to play excerpts from Hurley performing in their studio: rich stuff, and sometimes I don't realize who it is 'til Amy Goodman says his name---had a range.

Yo sleeve: if you (or any of yall) can ever link some Weber-led (Pacific Northwest only?) Rounders, I would very much like to hear that thx agn

yah sure

Holy Modal Rounders
December 1972
Jekyll and Hyde's Tavern
Portland, OR
fm>?>cdr circa early 2000's
cdr>xact>flac March 28 2018

cd1
1 Year Of Jubilo
2 Snake In the Grass
3 STP
4 Open Book
5 Pink Underwear
6 Half A Mind
7 Low Down Dog
8 Bird Song
9 City Women
10 Hop-Eyed Lady

cd2
1 Bossa Nova
2 Band Intro
3 TV Song
4 Smoky Joe's Cafe
5 Euphoria
6 Snappin' Pussy
7 Moving Day

Steve Weber - vocals, guitar
Teddy Deane - tenor, alto saxophones, clarinets, flute
Robin Remaily - vocals, guitar, fiddle, mandolin
Dave Reisch - bass
Roger North - drums
Richard Tyler - piano
plus guests
Billy Holtz - washboard
John LeRoy Williams - conga

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/7zwvth2fvl1yab2o1wjgl/AEbCsfmB6rXkvtIXxUX8eY4?rlkey=gc3ucz7t80t02mrf3ldfcfqoy&dl=0

Sweet, thanks so much!

Thanks sleeve!

https://michaelhurley.bandcamp.com/album/broken-homes-and-gardens

Great lead single. Eternity and bananas.