Customer Reviews

Blueberry Wine: The First Songs of Michael Hurley

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God! after almost 40 years, this still sounds as fresh as ever. It's no surprise that hispters like Cat Power have covered his stuff.

I've been searching for First Songs for years. It regularly goes for a ton of money on ebay...way over my budget. I finally caved in and bought one of the Smithsonian's inadequate cd-rs for a whoping 20 bucks. The sound quality was worse than lo-fi! It did a complete injustice to the brilliant lyricism and delivery behind this album. Well, what a difference. The folks behind this label have completely cleaned up the sound without any noticeable loss of fidelity and the packaging is great, classic Hurley. Even if you loved the original and the original title for that matter, this is how Hurley wanted it and his notes are awesome: amusing, informative, etc. The icing on the cake is that it's also packaged in one of those deluxe Japanese Style "trifold" jackets. This is without a doubt the best buy I've made all year!

I don't know where I've been since this record came out but somehow it completely missed my radar. Admittedly, I came to Hurley's stuff from the usual sources (Cat Power, Yo La Tengo) but once I went to the source, there was no going back. Since I got the Hurley bug, I've grabbed everything that's in print by him. I gotta say I disagree with the reviewer who puts this down for being "crude" . Actually, this is way better to my ears than the rounder discs. Totally heartfelt, raw and astonishing music. Would someone say Robert Johnson was a good bluesman but too bad his recordings were crude? Heck no! That element only heightens the experience for me! Blue Mountain is an all time classic. A late night tearjerker for sure.

Heard Michael Hurley's Blueberry Wine CD being reviewed on National Public Radio and thought I'd give it a try. I've been playing it nonstop for about a week and a half now. Very simple acoustic guitar playing but a mesmerizing voice. I may purchase another one of his CD's.

Michael Hurley is one of my all time favorites. This is a now 'out of print' re-mix of his 'First Songs' album. There are some great songs here, but I would reccomend other Hurley albums first. Try 'Snockgrass' and 'Long Journey' for starters. And---what's wrong with the people at Warner Bros.? They need to commit 'Armchair Boogie' and 'Hi-Fi Snock Uptown' to CD. I suggested this to them and they did not even give me a reply. NOW YOU CAN ORDER ARMCHAIR BOOGIE & HI-FI SNOCK UPTOWN FROM MICHAEL HIMSELF -- JUST SEARCH FOR snockonews ON THE INTERNET (I belive this will help Michael---the money will go directly to him). All four of these are shining diamonds---Blueberry Wine was a good start for Snocko.