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Scissor Tail has long been quietly releasing some of the best folk, psych, and country to hit the turntable. From early offerings from Rosali, Sarah Louise, Scott Hirsch, and Joseph Allred, through last year’s indispensable Tobacco City LP. They’ve not often dipped into reissues, though, but they’ve hit on something magical with a new edition of a lost private press gem from Marc Emory. Recorded as a college student in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania in 1974, the record is split between folk instrumentals that certainly have a familiarity with the Takoma family, and a few vocal tracks that add a loner charm to the record. The slide blues of “All Gaul” have a dose of Fahey in their DNA, but Emory gives the familiar feel his own kind of overcast glee.
Elsewhere, Listening Music/Anfang, finds itself
slipping through more trad folk territory, the second side practically
opening in a communal pub dance feeling. There’s a bluegrass spirit
bubbling under the record, with shades of Anglican folk and country
blues trading off when it subsides. When Emory’s vocal surface his
weariness hides his age, an already aching spirit barely out of his
school days. The original record was pressed in a run of 200 and mostly
given to friends and family. There were even some originals left over
that Scissor Tail made available in their shop. The new edition follows
suit and also comes in a run of 200. The well of private press records
that haven’t been found and freed at this point seems to be dwindling,
its best to pounce when you find one this good. - Raven Sings The Blues
