the critique of pure reason presents:
saturday, june 18, 2005
9:45pm doors
$10 donation
Folk Legend
MICHAEL HURLEY
with guest
Apothecary Hymns
Michael Hurley is one of the last remaining American rambling folk troubadours. Hobo-ing around the country, playing music since the days Bob Dylan first set foot in New York City’s Gaslight club, Hurley recorded his first album for Moses Ash’s legendary Folkways label in 1964. This debut album, First Songs, has recently been reissued on Locust Music under the “new,” and originally intended title, Blueberry Wine. Hurley continued to release albums for both Warner Brothers and Rounder. His mid-70s Have Moicy album was selected among the top 10 for the decade by Rolling Stone magazine. Hurley’s latest albums — Weatherhole and Sweetkorn — show no sign of artistic decline and garnered rave reviews. While many of his contemporaries are long past their prime or have expired, Hurley’s muse is still intact. Hurley’s songwriting talent is something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by new a generation of musicians. In recent years, Hurley was invited to tour with alt-country heroes Son Volt and Lucinda Williams. He’s also shared bills with Smog, Sunburned Hand of the Man, and Palace Brothers, played with the Giant Sand rhythm section, and his songs have been covered by indie stars Cat Power and Yo La Tengo. Whether he’s playing a cracked country blues number about space travel on his fretless banjo, an Appalachian children’s song like “Shortening Bread” on his fiddle, or plunking his heartbreakers on his beloved Gibson guitar, on stage Hurley’s charms never fail to captivate an audience. (Frank van den Elzen)
With a treasure trove of analogue, swirling effects, arch songcraft and a sweet yet assured vocal delivery, trowel & era brings to the table the epic, debut long-player by the one-man band Apothecary Hymns (aka Alex Stimmel). Stimmel has made a collection with one foot in kaleidoscopic coastal loner psych that floats on a musical bed of whimsical levity and another foot rooted firmly in the grand ethos of East Village troubadours of the mid 60s. Apothecary Hymns is Alex Stimmel—acoustic & electric guitars, 6 & 12 string guitars, banjo, bass, drums, wurlitzer, analog synth, organ, flute, recorder, kalimba (African finger piano), autoharp, glockenspiel, voice, & tape manipulation.
production: stacie slotnick / the critique of pure reason
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