Michael Hurley (musician)

Michael Hurley
Background information
Born	December 20, 1941 Bucks County, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres	Traditional folk, country folk
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, fiddle, banjo
Years active	1965-present

Michael Hurley (born c. December 20, 1941) is an American folk singer who was essential to the Greenwich folk music scene of the 1960s and 1970s. He is able to play a wide variety of instruments. Michael Hurley is also a cartoonist and a painter.

Michael Hurley's music is often described as "outsider folk."

Before starting his recording career Hurley contracted mononucleosis and needed to wait several years until he could sign to a record label. Hurley's debut album, First Songs, was recorded for Folkways Records in 1965 on the same reel-to-reel machine that taped Lead Belly's Last Sessions. He was discovered by blues and jazz historian Frederick Ramsey III, and subsequently championed by boyhood friend Jesse Colin Young, who released his 2nd & 3rd albums on The Youngbloods' Warner Bros. imprint, Raccoon. In the late 1970s, Hurley made three albums for Rounder, all of which have since been reissued on CD. His 1976 LP Have Moicy!, a collaboration with the Holy Modal Rounders and Jeffrey Frederick & The Clamtones, was named "the greatest folk album of the rock era" by The Village Voice's Robert Christgau.

In 1996, Koch Records released Wolfways with Hurley backed by Mickey Bones on drums. Tours with Son Volt and high praise from younger performers like Lucinda Williams, Vic Chesnutt, Woods, Calexico, Cat Power, Julian Lynch, and Robin Holcomb followed.

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