Folk /
Michael
**Edition of 300** Michael is the third LP we have done with Boston-based musician, Joseph Allred. The first, O Meadowlark (FTR 451LP, 2019) was a suite for guitar and banjo. For its follow-up, Traveler (FTR 491LP), Joseph added splendid vocals to the mix. With Michael, Mr. Allred gives airing to his fine harmonium playing, alongside string majesty and vocals. Maybe on the next one he'll teach us how to fly. Michael is an album with a dreamy narrative core. Its loose tale deals with the idea of …
Ex Patris
The title Ex Patris (from the fathers) plays on the idiomatic baroque lute compositions presented here which emulate the classical repertoire. It also refers to this almost forgotten instrument, which was passed on by the fathers. The Jozef Van Wissem's aim is to bring back and liberate the lute. The four compositions on Ex Patris form a circular narrative of interlocking repetitive melodic series. The follow up to Important release “ It is all that is made” kicks off with the pro apocalyptic tr…
Fantasias For Guitar And Banjo
Folk musician Sandy Bull took an unorthodox approach to stringed instruments, influenced in part by sharing an apartment with Nubian oud master, Hamza El Din. His 1963 debut LP for Vanguard, Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo, saw him backed by Los Angeles-based jazz drummer Billy Higgins: side-long epic Blend is influenced by eastern and middle-eastern music forms; Little Maggie displays a lightning-fast picking style, Gospel Tune hearkens to the American South, medieval classic Non Nobis Domine is…
Spine River : The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, 1967-1981
Guitarist Wall Matthews is surviving member of experimental 70's collective, Entourage. Sampled by Four Tet, their name whispered in reverence through the decades, Entourage forged bold musical ideas on their two rare ’70s Folkways LPs. Tompkins Square released Ceremony of Dreams : Studio Sessions and Outtakes, 1972-1977, in 2018 to wide acclaim. Spine River : The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, 1967-1981 is a collection of unreleased or obscure music by the master guitarist. This volume will be …
Fate Is Only Twice
Released as a short-run private press LP in 1965, Harry Taussig's 'Fate Is Only Once' has long been a coveted collectible among American Primitive guitar enthusiasts. The album presages the broader movement. Acoustic musicians were still largely stuck in a rigid "Folk" mindset in 1965, and there are just not that many other examples of the exploratory guitar sounds found on 'Fate' during this time period. Alternating between haunting originals and jaunty blues-based traditional numbers, this abs…
Imaginational Anthem Vol. 6
"If American primitive guitar begins with John Fahey and the Takoma School, then the actual origins of this sound are found within this collection of fourteen classic solo guitar performances. Recorded between 1923 and 1930, this set is the 'Rosetta Stone' of style and repertoire tapped into deeply by Fahey, Basho, and Rose, among many others. Sam McGee, Riley Puckett, Bayless Rose, Sylvester Weaver, Lemuel Turner, Frank Hutchinson, and Davey Miller are the rural artists included in this …
Companion Rises
Six Organs of Admittance is back after 3 years with a new record, new techniques in sound generation, and a new attitude. Companion Rises has a driving force only hinted at with previous releases. Manipulating the rhythmic DNA from songs such as the bass-dominated “Taken by Ascent” (on his last record, Burning the Threshold), Ben Chasny has grown a new sound creature in his lab that is as welcoming as it is terrifying and as fun to listen to as it provocative and intriguing.Methodologically, Com…
Matthew J. Rolin
**250 copies** "We're excited to release the debut solo LP by Matthew J. Rolin, currently a resident of Columbus, Ohio. Rolin cut his teeth with garage and psych outfits in Cleveland, appearing on vinyl by Shoreway and Nowhere before he found himself adrift and wandering in the direction of Chicago at the end of 2016. Matthew had always been a fan of Jim O'Rourke's brilliant Bad Timing LP (Drag City, 1997), and when he caught a set by Ryley Walker soon after arriving in the city, he decided to t…
Traveler
"Welcome to the second album we've done with string maestro, Joseph Allred. Unlike O Meadowlark (FTR 451LP), this one features a smattering of Joseph's vocals, although his main thrust is still glistening instrumentals. The title song is a goddamn sad one, sung with reedy elegance, dealing with a kidnapped dog that serves as a stand-in for all earthly beings, full of both frailty and resilience. Another vocal track, 'The Crown' (which inspired the cover art), stems from a long conversation Josep…
Live In Sausalito, September 9, 1973
The finger-picking guitarist and blues enthusiast John Fahey enjoyed a long, influential and distinguished career. Born in Washington DC in 1939 and raised in Takoma Park, Maryland, he lauched his own Takoma label to issue self-produced work in the late 1950s and then delivered his master's theses on the blues of Charlie Patton at UCLA. Then, while based in the radical town of Berkeley, California in the San Francisco Bay area, began issuing filed recordings of forgotten blues legends such as Bu…
Voice of the Eagle: the Enigma of Robbie Basho
Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho is a feature-length documentary on the extraordinary life and visionary music of the American guitarist, singer and mystic Robbie Basho. Before his bizarre death at the hands of a chiropractor, Robbie Basho was sure that his compositions would not outlast him. Orphaned during infancy, diagnosed with synaesthesia (a union of the senses that caused him to interpret sound as color) and claiming to be the reincarnation of a 17th century poet -- the Balt…
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Mark McGuire takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey through a winter wonderland with his soulful take on holiday favorites. From timeless classics like Joy to the World to a gorgeous rendition of Vince Guaraldi's Christmas Time Is Here, McGuire thrillingly updates these arrangements with his signature psychedelic guitar work. Here, he employs a wide spectrum of sounds and instruments to bring new ideas to these beloved chestnuts. Brimming with joy and festive cheer, Do You Hear What I Hear? is a mo…
Magic and Warmth at Christmastime
Vin Du Select Qualitite's resident mystic Anthony Pasquarosa conjures up the holiday spirits with an alchemically enchanted collection of Christmas classics. Utilizing his unique 12-string acoustic guitar sensibilities, Pasquarosa's versions of all-time favorites such as Frosty the Snowman and White Christmas take on an added dimension and shine, a frosted winter glow that sets the mood for warmly introspective holiday moments. Throughout the record, crackling fireplace sounds run alongside the …
Oh Really!?
The guitarist and singer-songwriter Mike Cooper was a key figure in the British blues boom of the late 1960s. Born in Reading in 1942, Cooper began playing guitar as a teen in local skiffle groups. After seeing Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee perform in 1961, Cooper caught the blues bug and began to play the harmonica and formed The Blues Committee, supporting John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Alexis Korner and Long John Baldry, while Cooper was also performing solo. Acquiring a lap steel gu…
O Meadowlark
**300 copies** "Currently based in the Boston area, Joseph Allred was one of the players we first encountered at 2018's Ten Thousand Incarnations of the Rose festival in Takoma Park MD. Allred's playing had some Basho-esque sequencing that was highly engaging, and the rest of the set was a killer, off-center swathe of string quiver we could not resist. O Meadowlark is Allred's third solo vinyl (there are cassettes as well), and will surely please many heads. Here're Joseph's words on how the alb…
Witness Tree
**400 copies** "Vinylization of a self-released cassette issued earlier this year by our favorite Virginia-based guitar player. Witness Tree is a brilliant follow-up to Perry's eponymous debut LP (2018), and expands upon the form-abstractions he first displayed there. Mr. Perry has a firm and solid touch to his string wrangling, but unlike many of his contemporaries, he doesn't seem to feel compelled to resolve all the melodic questions he raises. Perry often stops in a place he finds interestin…
But a Night That Ends as All Nights End When the Sun Rises
Tashi Dorji is a celebrated free-form / improvisational guitarist. Born and raised in Bhutan, but transplanted to Ashville, NC in the early 2000’s. He is a musical force that is in a caliber of his own. The amount of originality in his playing could have only been summoned when one is forced to confront limitations and raise a big middle finger to the ‘status quo’. He is known to focus his attention heavily on tonal qualities over melody. Mellow harmonics that integrate interference of seemingly…
For Octavio Paz
Ben Chasny's last ultra-indie label release before moving onto greener pastures with Drag City is finally available once more on vinyl thanks to Hermit Hut. Originally released in 2003 on the fabulous Time Lag label, we are now safe to bask in it's psych-folk sunlight again and let me assure you it's worth it. Ditching the voice almost altogether (save for a few wails), For Octavio Paz sees Chasny focussing on his primary skill - the guitar. This is a collection of some of his best solo guitar w…
Unpentangled - The Sixties Albums
Long acknowledged as one of the greatest and most influential acoustic guitarists to emerge from the British folk scene, the late John Renbourn is best known to the wider world for his membership of Pentangle, the genre-busting band that he was instrumental in bringing together in 1967. Pentangle’s recordings are widely available, most recently with Cherry Red’s 2017 highly-acclaimed box set Pentangle: The Albums. in 1966. Housed in a clamshell box that boasts replica album sleeves, some very ra…
End of the Night
End of the Night was conceived based around a simple, yet extremely emotionally resonant concept. Late one evening the musician and myself were listening to records at home. After many hours it got to the point where everything became completely still, the silence permeating the walls, reverberating. We agreed to listen to one more record, but what would it be? What music could answer that existential quandary of the perfect last record of the night at home? I instantly asked him to make me the …