[Today: Gary Higgins makes the most of his last days of freedom...]
“I had the feeling that I might never get a second chance to complete it or any other musical project for, essentially, ever” says Gary Higgins of the obstacles he faced in recording his 1973 album Red Hash. But he wasn’t staring down writer’s block or an uncooperative record label – he was awaiting stiff sentencing on a marijuana possession charge. Facing up to 10 years in maximum security prison, Higgins cleared his mind by decamping with a group of friends and a four-track recorder, and laying down the songs that he’d been working on. This entire album was recorded in one 40-hour, race-the-clock marathon as time wound down on his freedom.
If the real-life circumstances of Higgins’ predicament lent his work schedule a sense of urgency, it also provided his songs with the genuine sound of sadness and reflection. Throughout the album, his voice floats between a careworn whisper and a throaty rasp, and is abetted by his own finger picking, and splashes of cello, mandolin, and flute. It’s psychedelic chamber folk filled with a peaceful feeling of calm, but tinged with regret and paranoia. Shortly after Higgins was packed off to jail, the album was pressed on his own Nufusmoon label in a small batch of 2,500 copies, but it died a quick death without its author around to support it.
After serving 13 months of his sentence, Higgins reaclimated into the real world – getting a job, starting a family, and not thinking much about his long-lost LP. But the album was building a steady, word-of-mouth following that culminated in a Sub Pop executive tracking Higgins down in 2005 in order to re-issue it on disc. Contemporary psych-folk artists like Devendra Banhart and Six Organs Of Admittance lined up to pay glowing tribute to an artist most people had never heard of. And finally, Higgins reformed the group that made this album, and began playing a few dates around the country earlier this year. It took more than 30 years, but Red Hash has finally found its place in the folk canon.
Listen: Thicker Than A Smokey
Tags: Folk, Gary Higgins, Red Hash
10 December 2007 at 2:04 pm |
I love this album. Few albums have hit me so instantly and powerfully.
I never knew the story behind it. Now I love it even more.
12 April 2008 at 2:05 pm |
[...] story, and his album Red Hash is truly one of the great ‘lost’ albums of all-time. This write-up was the easiest thing I worked on all year – it practically wrote itself. It’s one of the [...]
3 November 2009 at 9:47 pm |
[...] as well as Josh Ritter’s Golden Age Of Radio, Neil Young’s Harvest, Gary Higgins’ Red Hash, Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks, Fairport Convention’s Unhalfbricking, Skip [...]