The Hired Hands: A Tribute to Bruce Langhorne

An unsung hero of the counterculture from the 1960s and early 70s, Bruce Langhorne is finally getting some much-deserved attention for his significant contributions to the scene. As a guitarist and percussionist, Langhorne played on sessions with Bob Dylan – he's been credited for partly inspiring ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ and he played lead electric guitar on ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ – while he also backed Odetta, Joan Baez and Hugh Masekela. When Peter Fonda earned the opportunity to direct a feature film (thanks to the success of Easy Rider), he hired Langhorne to score the offbeat, lo-fi western The Hired Hand in 1971. Using guitar, sitar, banjo and a few other instruments, Langhorne created a perfectly appropriate dreamy, introspective, minimalist soundscape, which four decades later served as inspiration for this enthralling album project. The 32 tracks are brief, impressionistic responses based on narrative elements in Fonda's film, as well as Langhorne's soundtrack. The music ranges from traditionally composed instrumentals (Wes Tirey's ‘Horsedreamer’) and edgy atmospheric improvisations (Elliott Sharpe's ‘Eon Blur Changer’) to engagingly unclassifiable entries, such as Eugene Chadbourne's clawhammer banjo ditty, ‘Graveyard (Response to Dead Girl)’. This is an album of profound beauty and conscientious presentation.