This is the fifth lp in the careening odyssey of a premier American folk Band, the Holy Modal Rounders. The duo perhaps on the so called back nine of their grand social experiment were an essential pigment in the back to the land, primal recovery and repurposing of traditional music forms. In addition, they had the good moxy to have one Michael Hurley do the lp cover art. With the exception of his very first record on Folkways, he has painted and sung his way into the hearts and minds of a generally unrepenting public. This post provides a welcome excuse to trot out some obscure graphic highlights. A few trends become immediately apparent:
It’s the 1960’s. People aren’t necessarily wearing shoes anymore. They all have bearclaw feet. Public fun has become a cottage industry. Certain farms in Vermont have succeeded from the Union and the Confederacy! Keep an eye on the persistent relevance of two main heroes, the errant wolves Boone and Jocko (seen in the middle right background). Their continuing chief contributions are to sex, alcohol use, music making and cosmic musing, and an irregular shiftiness. They are not Michael Hurley’s alter egos, he be them. If you direct your eyes to the bandstand of the great outdoors, with the certain hardwood floors and curlique guitar chords, the colors of the moment have arrived.
One thing you notice about childrens’ paintings is the lack of an urge to please somebody. Their strokes are direct. Their energy is unapologetically apparent. Maybe they haven’t been around long enough to let opinions silence the voice of art inside. Michael is the eternal inner child painter.
“Back Home With the Drifting Woods” 1965 @ Gerdes Folk City
Mountains is roundish, stylish nowhere lonely roads, Jocko landscraping, thumb out a whistlin tumbleweed.
No Idea Where But We Gettin There
Mr. Hurley is a great record hound. Unearthing lost and forgotten song classics. Then he re-impersonates them onstage. They return illuminated by their own glory.
“Dark Valley Walls” by Wilmer “Bill” Browning sparks off 2013’s “Land of Lo Fi”
And “Blue Driver"by J.R. Cheatham greases the palms of Michael’s “Hi Fi Snock Uptown” 1972