Michael Hurley

An outlandish folk hobo and one time train-robber, Michael Hurley’s rough-hewn muse has quietly inspired American Music for over forty years: he’s been covered by Cat Power; lauded by Yo La Tengo; recruited by Devendra Banhart.

An intoxicating crooner, cartoonist, raconteur and alt-country godfather, Hurley – aka various derivations of ‘Snock’ – has amassed a bluesy booty bag of wild-eyed arias and blistering dirges: his most recent undertaking – last year’s Ancestral Swamp – was his first for enduring fan Banhart’s label, Gnomonsong. Snock’s 20th long-player, it proved a lambent addition to a remarkable catalogue that includes 1976’s landmark collaboration, ‘Have Moicy’: heralded “the greatest folk album of the rock era” by the Village Voice.

Hurley’s brilliant, grizzly blueprint nuzzles fiddles, grazed riffery, Wurlitzer organs: stifling maidens and southern beguilers. Those seeking America’s greatest unsung folk hero need look no further.