Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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Michael Hurley [extended]

  • Armchair Boogie [Raccoon, 1971] A-
  • Hi-Fi Snock Uptown [Raccoon, 1972] B-
  • Have Moicy! [Rounder, 1976] A+
  • Long Journey [Rounder, 1977] B+
  • Snockgrass [Rounder, 1980] A-
  • Blue Navigator [Rooster, 1984] B
  • Watertower [Fundamental, 1988] B+
  • Wolf Ways [Koch, 1995] Choice Cuts
  • Weatherhole [Field, 1999] ***
  • Ida Con Snock [Gnomonsong, 2009] *

See Also:

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Michael Hurley & Pals: Armchair Boogie [Raccoon, 1971]
The man is seductive. His fast songs aren't steady enough to win any races, and when he gets to wandering I often get lost--only to notice him dying or offending Shulamith Firestone out of the corner of my ear. I don't believe the werewolf loves the maid as he tears off her clothes. But Hurley makes me want to hear his side of the story, lupine high notes and all. A-

Hi-Fi Snock Uptown [Raccoon, 1972]
When Hurley is good, his tunes snake up on you. When he's not, they snail right past, disappearing forever behind that cabbage leaf there. B-

Michael Hurley/The Unholy Modal Rounders/Jeffrey Fredericks & the Clamtones: Have Moicy! [Rounder, 1976]
A dynamic trio. Hurley's sleepy LPs for Raccoon flaunted their homemade triviality, while the work of Peter Stampfel (and Steve Weber and the other Rounders) for Prestige and Metromedia and Rounder managed to make music out of chalk scraping a blackboard, or a needle scraping an old 78--quite a feat, but not one I ever wanted to witness daily. This time, however, both forces combine with Fredericks for thirteen homemade, chalky, fit-for-78 songs that renew the concept of American folk music as a bizarre apotheosis of the post-hippie estate. No losers, though--just loadsa laffs, a few tears, some death, some shit, a hamburger, spaghetti, world travel, crime, etc. A+

Long Journey [Rounder, 1977]
Fingers trembling, the oft-cynical critic opened the new LP by the playful, sardonic folkie recluse. Without the Rounders or Jeffrey Fredericks to change paces, there was no way it could be another Have Moicy! (Aw.) But it might be woozy and charming, like Armchair Boogie. (Hey!) Or cute and dull, like Hi-Fi Snock Uptown. (Duh.) Also, the critic might fall asleep before finding out. Four months and many snoozes later, he arrived at a verdict: sardonic, charming, playful, cute, woozy, and only rarely dull. Highly recommended to Have Moicy! cultists. Hitbound: "Hog of the Forsaken." Whoopee. B+

Snockgrass [Rounder, 1980]
More songs about dying and food--and rambling, mustn't forget rambling--from the old-timey existentialist, whose oblique wail recalls both Jerry Garcia and John Prine because all three are more obsessed with mountain vocal styles than most mountain vocal stylists. "Jole' Blon," "Tia Marie," and a few others are more or less what you'd expect, but if you ever expected "You Gonna Look Like a Monkey" or "I Heard the Voice of a Porkchop," you're two up on me. A-

Blue Navigator [Rooster, 1984]
Us snockgrass fans didn't await this long-awaited album quite long enough--sounds as if Hurley padded over to the studio before he was done with his nap. I know it's always sleepy time up north in Wolfville, and Hurley obviously spent part of his four-year vacation thinking about seven new originals. But except for the . . . climactic "Open Up (Eternal Lips)," even the best of them get lost on their way to the outhouse. Inspirational Insert: "Feel free to tape this album: Blue Navigator is not soley [sic] a commercial venture but is intended for a spiritual life far out traveling the destination of one arrow." B

Watertower [Fundamental, 1988]
His core audience couldn't be much over 2000, and since I'm on its fringe, I don't much care that this typically unheralded, offhand, and tardy acoustic collection will make no converts. He still writes more calmly and curiously about the great beyond than anyone. What's more "Broadcasting the Blues" and "I Paint a Design," break thematic ground--television and professionalism, respectively. B+

Wolf Ways [Koch, 1995]
"I Paint a Design" Choice Cuts

Weatherhole [Field, 1999]
Shoebox of American folk music ("Nat'l Weed Growers Assoc.," "Your Old Gearbox"). ***

Ida Con Snock [Gnomonsong, 2009]
He's been hitching the eternal to the silly ever since he gave up running for the bus in 1965 ("Ragg Mopp," "I Stole the Right to Live"). *