Gary Higgins - A Dream a While Back reviews
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
| Pitchfork |
 Everyone loves a good comeback story, and the return of Gary Higgins has been one most dramatic and unlikely in recent memory. In 1973, Higgins released his debut album Red Hash, and then, following a stint in prison on drug charges, disappeared entirely from the public eye. Over the intervening years, a small but fervent group of fans came to consider Red Hash a lost psych-folk classic. Following a great deal of detective work, Drag City reissued the album in 2005 and Higgins returned to play some well-received live shows. In 2009, Drag City then released Seconds, Higgins first album of new material in more than three decades.
The only snag in the resurrection of Higgins' music career was that on Seconds, the backstory largely overshadowed the actual music. Time had been surprisingly kind to Higgins' gentle voice, but Seconds failed to recapture the magic glow of Red Hash, with stiff songwriting that too often settled into coffeehouse folk-rock clichés. So it seems a good decision that for the next stage of Higgins' musical rejuvenation Drag City has gone back to the beginning with A Dream a While Back, a short collection of songs recorded by Higgins back in 1970-71. And though these solo works are not as fleshed out nor quite as transporting as the highlights of Red Hash, they provide a fascinating document of a young songwriter finding his voice, and leave behind lingering questions about what might have been.
Oftentimes when an obscure album comes to be considered a cult classic, it can be easy to hear why it failed to find a larger audience in its own time-- it's too out-of-step, too innovative or forward-thinking, or just simply too personal and strange. But to me that has never seemed the case with Red Hash, an album that sounds resolutely of its time, and nearly as accessible as the folk-rock of Neil Young, Bert Jansch, or Paul Simon of the same era. And it certainly doesn't sound that foreign to modern ears familiar with the work of Elliott Smith or Ben Chasny, who memorably covered Red Hash's "Thicker Than a Smokey" on Six Organs of Admittance's School of the Flower....full text |
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| Boomkat |
| Please note that this item is available for PRE-ORDER ONLY and will only be shipped to reach you on or after the official release date. We have indicated the nearest available SHIP DATE as supplied to us by the distributor - please note that release dates are liable to change at any time at the distributor's discretion - we will post the new release dates if any such changes come into effect. Please remember that we are dependent on the distributors, record label's and couriers to deliver the releases to us on time....full text |
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| Boomkat |
| 1973’s ‘Red Hash’ is the album most people associate with wyrd-folk loner Gary Higgins, and in their continuing mission to introduce more ears to his music, Drag City have dug up some rare pre-Hash recordings. I don’t know a great deal about Higgins having first come across him thanks to Drag City’s vinyl re-issue of ‘Red Hash’ a few years back, but this collection of songs, recorded between 1970 and 1971 is just as arresting as his debut full-length. The kind of paranoid, creepy folk music that had Ben Chasny hooked when he covered Higgins on his ‘School of Flower’ LP is still here and sounding more poignant than ever. While the rest of the world was fascinated (or involved) with free love, Higgins sounds total on his own, singular, focused and eerily calm. This is not the pretty, homespun folk of Vashti Bunyan or The Incredible String Band, and while Higgins might be loved by dope-smokers the world over, ‘A Dream While Back’ is nowhere near as soft around the edges as might be expected. Excellent, and highly recommended....full text |
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