Michael Hurley

Michael Hurley (born c. December 20, 1941) is an American folk singer who was essential to the Greenwich folk music scene of the 1960s and 1970s. He is able to play a wide variety of instruments. Michael Hurley is also a cartoonist and a painter. Michael Hurley's music is often described as "outsider folk."

Before starting his recording career Hurley contracted mononucleosis and needed to wait several years until he could sign to a record label. Hurley's debut album, First Songs, was recorded for Folkways Records in 1965 on the same reel-to-reel machine that taped Lead Belly's Last Sessions. He was discovered by blues and jazz historian Frederick Ramsey III, and subsequently championed by boyhood friend Jesse Colin Young, who released his 2nd & 3rd albums on The Youngbloods' Warner Bros. imprint, Raccoon. In the late 1970s, Hurley made three albums for Rounder, all of which have since been reissued on CD. His 1976 LP Have Moicy!, a collaboration with the Holy Modal Rounders and Jeffrey Frederick & The Clamtones, was named "the greatest folk album of the rock era" by The Village Voice's Robert Christgau. (Read more at Wikipedia)

Links to Peel
Michael Hurley was one of the more individualistic artists to emerge from the US folk scene. He came to Peel's attention in the 1970s through his LPs for Raccoon, at a time when Warner Brothers and its associated labels were signing Peel favourites like John Fahey and Captain Beefheart. He became a favourite of Peel and Andy Kershaw, his records being played fairly frequently by both DJs over the years.

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