Michael Hurley, the singer-songwriter who emerged from the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s and became an influential outsider artist, has died. He was 83.
In addition to releasing over 30 albums, Hurley was also a cartoonist and painter. He often referred to himself by the nickname “Snock.”
In a statement to Rolling Stone, his family said: “It is with a resounding sadness that the Hurley family announces the recent sudden passing of the inimitable Michael Hurley.
“The ‘Godfather of freak folk’ was for a prolific half-century the purveyor of an eccentric genius and compassionate wit. He alone was Snock. There is no other. Friends, family, and the music community deeply mourn his loss.”
Hurley was born on December 20, 1941 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. By his early 20s he had found his way to Greenwich Village in New York City where he became a key figure on the burgeoning folk scene.
He recorded his debut album, First Songs, for Folkways Records in 1963 and was championed by his friend and fellow singer-songwriter Jesse Colin Young, who died last month.
When Young’s band the Youngbloods landed their own label imprint, Racoon, he tracked down Hurley in Boston and encouraged him to record two further albums, 1971’s Armchair Boogie and 1972’s Hi Fi Snock Uptown.
In 1976 he released perhaps his most acclaimed album, Have Moicy!, a collaboration with members of the Holy Modal Rounders. He continued to put out records consistently over the next four decades, releasing his final album The Time of the Foxgloves in 2021.
During that time he travelled the United States extensively, living variously in New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Vermont, Ohio, Florida and Oregon. He self-published several magazines, includingThe Underground Monthly, The Outcry, and The Morning Tea.
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His usually drew the artwork for his own albums, often featuring the cartoon werewolf characters Jocko and Boone. The pair, who were based on dogs Hurley’s family had owned when he was a child, also starred in comic books that he created.
He continued touring and performing right until the end of his life, and died shortly after returning home from the avant-garde Big Ears festival in Knoxville, Tennessee.
He had three children with his ex wife, Marjorie: two sons, Jordan and Colorado, and a daughter, Daffodil.
He had two more children with different mothers: a son, Rollin, with a girlfriend, Kim, and a daughter, Wilder Mountain Honey, with another girlfriend, Bethany.
