Sunday, March 22, 2009

Gary Higgins - Red Hash (us 1973 psychedelic stoned folk)

Gary Higgins - Red Hash (us 1973)
Born: Sharon, CT, United States

Members:
- Gary Higgins - guitar, vocals
- Dave Beaujon - bass
- Jake Bell - guitar, vocals
- Terry Fenton - organ , percussion
- Paul Tierney - flute, mandolin, vocals
- Maureen Wells - cello, vocals

Tracklist:
01. Thicker Than a Smokey - 3:38
02. It Didn't Take Too Long - 4:02
03. Windy Child - 3:31
04. Telegraph Towers - 2:56
05. I Can't Sleep at Night - 3:52
06. Cuckoo - 2:10
07. I Pick Notes From the Sky - 4:45
08. Stable the Spuds - 5:22
09. Down on the Farm - 3:08
10. Unable to Fly - 4:12
11. Looking for June - 3:51

A beautifully wrought record of sun-drenched folk musings courtesy of Gary Higgins, Red Hash was reissued in 2005 on Drag City to great acclaim. This is a "Buried Treasure" that lives up to its reputation.
~ by: Ariel (thedoledrums.blogspot.com)

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ROGUE BOY INTO JAIL
"Red Hash", Gary Higgins' melancholy masterpiece, is often cited in the same breath as such admired hippy-folk obscurities as Skip Spence's "oar", Linda Perhacs "Parallelograms" and Vashti Bunyan's "Just another Diamond Day". Unlike those artists, however, Higgins' story has a novel twist: by the time the album was relased in March 1973, he was doing time in a maximum security Jail!
Higgins and his chums were self-described "hippies living in the country", the extent of their crimes limited to smoking marijuana ("I even inhaled," Higgins reveals). The situation turned serious, however, when Higgins and manager Gary 'Chico' Cardillo were caught up in President Nixon's newly declared War On Drugs. As a result of their involvement in an October 1972 pot bust - they'd become unwitting pawns in a large undercover police operation - they found themself facing long, hard prison sentences.
"It certainly shocked us." says Higgins. "But it brought forth an urgency in getting some songs down on tape because I didn't know if I'd ever get another chance." ...
~ By: (c60lownoise.blogspot.com)
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Biography:
Born in Sharon, Connecticut, Higgins cut his musical teeth in 1960s New York, first in the psychedelic group Random Concept and later with avant-folkies Wooden Wheel. In 1972, Higgins was caught up in a drug sting; but shortly before entering a maximum-security facility, he cut a record featuring members of his two prior groups: Jake Bell (guitar, vocals), Maureen Wells (cello, vocal), Jerry Fenton (piano, organ), Dave Beaujon (bass), and Paul Jerney (mandolin, flute, vocals). Besides singing and playing guitar, Higgins recorded drums for a few cuts.
The record was titled (not by Higgins) Red Hash, and it failed to sell out its modest printing of a few thousand copies. After his release, Higgins held down a series of jobs in the Connecticut/New York area, eventually marrying and raising a son. While he play in a bar bands, he didn't pursue further recording, and his record became a foggy memory.
In the 1990s, a small cult of devotion bloomed around the record, a cult that included David Tibet of Current 93 and Six Organs of Admittance's Ben Chasny, who covered "Thicker Than a Smokey" for his album School of the Flower in hopes of getting Higgins' attention. Eventually, Sub Pop/Drag City staffer Zach Cowie located Higgins, signed him to Drag City, and oversaw the re-release of Red Hash in the summer of 2005. In July of that year, Higgins played his first solo show, supported by members of Random Concept, as well as his guitarist son, Graham.
~ (RYM)
Download Link:
Filename: Gary Higgins - Red Hash (us 1973 psychedelic stoned f...rar Size: 52.36 MB
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thankx for this obscure and rare folk psych record. Superb.

Anonymous said...

WONDERFUL. I'd heard about this album a couple of years back when it was making its re-release splash, but didn't get around to checking it out. Higgins even played a show in NYC, but I didn't go to that either.

What a fool I am.

But better late than never...

Your site is a wonder. High appreciation from thousands of like-minded souls out here.

Anonymous said...

I got this from you earlier this year but problems with my computer left me without it. So glad to find this again! Thank you for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Thanx a lot!