John Hulburt
Opus III

The Tompkins Square label is well known as an important entity for reissuing lost records and reactivating careers (Mark Fossom, Max Ochs, Don Bikoff) as well as kickstart careers for young musicians.(Frank Fairfield, William Tyler, Daniel Bachman, Ryley Walker).

In this case, Ryley Walker, Tompkins Square alumni, found the long forgotten Opus III LP in a Chicago record store, dug it and shared it with Tompkins Square owner Josh Rosenthal. I guess it was a no brainer for Rosenthal to reissue this.

There were not much traces of Hulburt on the internet before this reissue. There are recordings of The Knaves, a sixties garage rock band he founded and an early eighties video of Hulburt, playing some folk tunes in a bar in Chicago. With this release and the nice informative booklet, he's got some international attention that this record deserves, even if it is post mortem.

This album counts 20 titles, so it's approximately two minutes per song - mostly solo guitar, some with lyrics and even a flute shows up. The overall vibe is like the guitar guys on the Numero Group compilation "Wayfaring Strangers", kind of jazzy, blues virtuosity. I am not sure if there was a different style played up North in Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin (I am thinking on Mark Lang, Jim Ohlschmidt, Leo Kottke) than more down in the South. Maybe.

The fine guys at Aquarium Drunkard wrote a much more in depth review about this record and even found a connection between Hulburts work with The Knaves and this solo acoustic guitar album. So check their review out and of course this wonderful reissue.