Terrific solo guitar music, steeped in ragtime and country blues, but this time going after something else too —  ‘in a harsh climate… this new one reaches a little further both into the past and the future’.

‘folk album of the year’ (The Observer); ‘*****  ... not a note is wasted’ (Time Out); **** Mojo; **** Uncut; ‘Compilation Of The Year’ (The Guardian).

Alasdair Roberts, Nancy Elizabeth, Michael Hurley, James Yorkston, Victoria Williams, Richard Youngs: six ravishing, luminous new interpretations. Short-run vinyl sampler, fine pressing, silk-screened sleeves.

A droning, slo-mo Leonard Cohen cover, and a collaboration with violinist Jessica Moss, from A Silver Mt. Zion; both around twelve minutes. Grouper’s a big fan.

With guests including Erika Elder, P.G. Six, Michael Flower, J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr and Jeremy Earle from Woods. A legs eleven and a midden mound of ‘sprawling jams (including the incredible Rudy Rucker inspired Freeware) and beautiful songs. A truly wondrous, sun-blinded, summer stoner record that lets the sand slip through its toes and tramps off in the direction of a mirage of a gigantic effigy of Ganesh.’ 180g; heavyweight, UV-coated, tip-on gatefold; poster insert. 300 only.

‘The Voice of the People’.

‘The Voice of the People’.

Recorded at Muscle Shoals in 1973: a feelingly spare, beautifully restrained concept album about a divorce, devoting a side to each point of view.
‘This is a hell of an emotional record, where even the celebratory honky tonk numbers are muted by sadness. Then, there are the centerpieces: Walkin’, where the woman decides it’s time to move on; Pretend I Never Happened, perhaps the coldest ending to a relationship ever written; Bloody Mary Morning, a bleary-eyed morning-after tale that became a standard; It’s Not Supposed to Be That Way, a nearly unbearably melancholy account of a love gone wrong; and Heaven and Hell, a waltz summary of the relationship. Any two of these would have formed a strong core for an album, but placed together in a narrative context, their impact is even more considerable. As a result, this is not just one of Willie Nelson’s best records, but one of the great concept albums overall’ (AllMusic).

‘***** beautiful, deeply affecting… hard to beat as the year’s most worthwhile reissue’, The Guardian; ‘magnificent… wonderfully austere’, Time Out.