A pleasure to welcome back to cafe OTO the legendary singer, songwriter, artist, folk hobo Michael Hurley aka Doc Snock - a true American iconoclast and one of that country's songwriting greats.

MICHAEL HURLEY

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 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. (Light in The Attic Records)

Photo by Chris Laputt



DAN HAYWOOD (TRIO)

The Lancastrian songwriter/poet/ornithologist will be performing stripped-down selections from his epic big-band triple-LP New Hawks (praised as “livid with ideas” by WIRE, “wild-eyed” by Uncut & “as dour in texture as a North Sea shoreline” by the Independent on Sunday), as well as debuting material from his forthcoming Dapple and North American songbooks. With Andy Raven (mandolin) and Mikey Kenney (fiddle).

Dan Haywood's New Hawks - Spate River from Gianmarco Del Re on Vimeo.