I hope that you are enjoying this week-long exploration of some rare, private press recordings. Reader “Viagra Falls” was kind enough to send over a gigabyte of albums for me to enjoy, and now I’m passing some of his donations on to you. Because I care about you. I want you to discover new music that you can brag about at parties, where dumbshit hipsters won’t know what the hell you’re talking about because they haven’t read about it on Pitchfork, or Stereogum, or literally any other music blog in existence.
Take, for example, K.C. Humphrey. Google returns zero blog search results for mention of his amazing 1975 loner folk LP “For A Smile.” The cover is a pencil drawn image of a young man playing guitar beneath a tree to a woman who is lying down next to him. Is she his girlfriend? A crush? A friend? Is she a non-existent manifestation of his idealized woman? Your guess is as good as mine.
This album definitely falls under the category of folk, but whether you want to sub-classify it as “loner,” “troubadour” or simply “folk rock” is up to you. The instrumentation is acoustic guitar, mandolin, keyboards and some effects. Some songs (the assertive “Kingdom”) are better than others (the unpolished “Zooming” and James Taylor-ish “Fountain”), but the record as a whole works well together, and carries a certain charm that is seemingly inherent to all artists of this ilk.
If you’re a collector, you might want to file this alongside Heitkotter and Past The 20th Century in your DIY hand-drawn covers section, if your record collection is broken down into such minute categories.
Enjoy!
K.C. Humphrey
For A Smile
MegaUpload DL Link
Tracklist:
01. Parados
02. Zooming
03. Kingdom
04. Fountain
05. Noah
06. For A Smile
07. Drone Tune
08. New Susanna
09. Le Bambino
10. The Endless Flight – Rainstar
