The Pop Corporation

One of outsider folk’s greatest, Michael Hurley, has passed away aged 83. The sad news was confirmed by his family. Hurley was an influence on a host of artists and responsible for some of the greatest slices of American freak-country ever recorded.

In a statement to Rolling Stone, they said: “It is with a resounding sadness that the Hurley family announces the recent sudden passing of the inimitable Michael Hurley. The ‘Godfather of freak folk’ was for a prolific half-century the purveyor of an eccentric genius and compassionate wit. He alone was Snock. There is no other. Friends, family, and the music community deeply mourn his loss.”

His first recorded music arrived in ’64, but it wasn’t until ’76’s ‘Have Moicy!’ that his legend was cemented, becoming a huge cult favourite. You could tell someone had good taste if they’d even heard of Hurley.

His albums, complete with his own illustrations on the jackets, were filled with songs unique, witty, oddball, and sometimes eye-wettingly gorgeous, from ‘O My Stars’, to ‘Slurf Song’, to It Must Be Gelatine’, to ‘I Paint A Design’.

Hurley came through the folk scene in the ’60s, but didn’t have the drive and ruthlessness that some of his peers did.

“I didn’t enjoy the process of applying for gigs, that determination to penetrate things, all this trouble you had to go through,” he told the Guardian in 2021. “I preferred playing parties. Little gatherings. Drinking with friends, hopping across the river.”

That energy was evident throughout all of his wonderful records, with tales of odd jobs and wandering through life, and more.

Cat Power was one notable artist who covered Hurley, who tackled his ‘The Werewolf’ in 2003, and elsewhere Lucinda Williams and Devendra Banhart cited him as an influence, with the latter going on to release Michael’s LPs on his Gnomonsong record label.

Mike Quinn of No Quarter Records, said that Hurley had “just finished a new album. It was mastered the week before he died, and he was very proud of it (as he should be… it’s outstanding). Hopeful it will see the light of day soon.”

Until then, raise a glass to a true one-off and listen to his music this weekend.