I don’t have all the answers about Michael Hurley and how his “outsider folk” and rambling ways somehow managed to connect with some of our generations great independent artists (Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, and Devendra Bernhardt all claim him as an important influence). This is his 20th record and I suspect it’s the first I’ve heard by him. His first record came out in 1965 and the story goes that it was recorded with the same reel to reel machine as Leadbelly’s Last Sessions. On Ancestral Swamp, just out on Bernhardt’s own label – Gnomonsong, the recording technology may have improved but the sound is still typical woodsy Michael Hurley. Imagine some of the simplest outsider folk-art from the South and then imagine it put to music and you get Michael Hurley.
Ancestral Swamp is available here. More info here and here.
Bonus track from 1971′s Armchair Boogie
Beautiful songs. The first time I hear Doc was when they played “I Paint a Design” during the closing credits for the amazing short film “The Accountant”.