Michael Hurley, the Bucks County-born and Greenwich Village-raised folk hero and cartoonist, has passed away at the age of 83. “It is with a resounding sadness that the Hurley family announces the recent sudden passing of the inimitable Michael Hurley,” a statement from his family said, confirmed by his publicist. “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’s debut album, First Songs, was released in 1963 via Folkways Records, and he would go on to release more than 30 LPs in his lifetime, including Armchair Boogie, Have Moicy!, Snockgrass, and, most recently, The Time of the Foxgloves. He was childhood friends with the Youngbloods’ Jesse Colin Young, who recently passed away himself, and, later in his life, a perennial part of the Nelsonville Music Festival bill, performing in 2008, 2010-19, and 2022. His song “Be Kind to Me” is, in my opinion, one of the greatest folk songs ever penned.
After living in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida, Ohio, Vermont, California, and Pennsylvania, Michael Hurley called rural Oregon his home for the final years of his life. His impact on folk music is immeasurable, as his language touched five generations of storytellers. Recently, Merce Lemon named her album Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild after the retelling of a family friend’s encounter with Hurley, who howled from a living room and awoke a pack of dogs in the middle of the night. Recently, he played an at-capacity set at Big Ears Festival in Tennessee, surrounded by people who adored him. I can’t think of a better send-off for the one guy who could make the phrase “greatest of all time” sound very silly.
Hurley is survived by five children, Jordan, Colorado, Daffodil, Rollin, and Wilder Mountain Honey. No cause of death has been disclosed.
