Michael Hurley

★★★★

The Time Of The Foxgloves NO QUARTER. CD/DL/LP

Long-awaited new studio LP from much-loved American troubadour. A gem.

It’s been 12 years since 80-year-old Michael Hurley released a new studio album. A bunch of reissues helped fill the time between, but here at last is the follow-up. From the very first listen, these 11 songs sound like they’ve been here forever. Well, a few actually

have been around for some time – like the revisited/ reworked closing track Lush Green Trees. Or Love Is The Closest Thing, spare and simply lovely, with acoustic guitar and Hurley’s fine, dusty voice backed by one of several female backing singers who guest on the album. There’s four different banjo players on here too. Recorded at home in Oregon on four-track tape, musician friends added parts long-distance, including piano, dobro, bass clarinet, pump organ and violin. Some highlights: sweet old bluesy-folk Little Blue River; strangely hymnlike Jacob’s Ladder and drifting, dreamy Knocko The Monk.