Michael Hurley Ancestral Swamp (Gnomonsong)

[January 23rd, 2008]

[PRE-FREAK FOLK] Portland’s musical landscape changes so quickly, invigorated and clouded by artists both homegrown and imported, that finding any real lineage can be a tricky prospect. Still, local legend Michael Hurley has a posse: He’s credited as an influence by a number of musicians both local (Little Sue, Pete Krebs, Amy Annelle) and national (Cat Power, Lucinda Williams, Devendra Banhart). His fan base, though, is a tad harder to pin down. On his 2007 album, The Ancestral Swamp, 66-year-old Hurley—who just as often goes by “Doc Snock”—gives us yet another reason to discover him.

If you knew nothing of the peculiar troubadour’s long history, Ancestral Swamp—out on Devendra Banhart’s Gnomonsong label—would still be a revelation. Hurley is direct and playful, delicate and powerful—an affecting songwriter with enough eccentricities to keep a listener guessing at every curve.

The album opens with “Knockando,” wherein Hurley’s voice sounds strong and sure as it climbs from damp spoken word to a wispy falsetto. An old hippie joke (“Have a glass of no-can-do”) transforms into touching natural imagery: “Can you hear/ The crackling heart/ Of the old pine wood?” Hurley asks.

There’s a sweetness in Hurley’s delivery that only age can provide. As with Johnny Cash’s American Recordings, Hurley squeezes more from these songs than a younger songwriter could (he says via his website that about half the tracks are covers, but even traditionals like “Streets of Laredo” are modified beyond familiarity). His singularity is most noticeable on sparse slow-burners like the electric piano-driven “Lonesome Graveyard” and the haunting “New River Blues,” where he sings touchingly, “Like a freed stream of light/ My heart jumped straight to you tonight.”

When Hurley is accompanied on Swamp , it’s by an all-local cast: his longtime bassist Dave Reisch (switching out with Lewi Longmire on one track) and guitarist-vocalist Tara Jane ONeil.

There’s more to say about Snocko: that he first recorded for the legendary Folkways label in 1964; that he’s included hand-drawn comics with nearly every release. But there’s plenty of time to discover all that—you’ll want to once you’ve heard Doc’s tunes.