1941: born 20 December, four siblings, father produced operettas in Florida (Showboat, The Chocolate Soldier, Carmen, Naughty Marietta, The Merry Widow)
1945: begins drawing career
1949: shifts allegiance from cowboys to Indians
Much travelled: Florida, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, New Orleans, Mexico, Alabama
1950s: girlfriend Andy Behr, collies Boone and Count
Teenage years: Bucks County, PA, raising hell with Jessie Colin Young [qv] (Youngbloods), Robin Remailey (who shot MH with a 38?) and Steve Weber (Holy Modal Rounders) "I drank wine all the time"
1959: "I began to ramble... hitchhiked to New Orleans, New York, and Mexico. I was then learning to play the guitar..." [memoirs]
Artists admired: Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Burl Ives, Leadbelly, Hank Williams, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, Lightnin' Hopkins, Brenda Lee, Joseph Spence, Flat and Scruggs, Smiley Lewis, Thurston Harris
1960s: "I had a need for fast cash so for years I heisted the produce, even robbed trains, hopped trains, and even worked as a broomsweep in a small Philadelphia grocery. ...five or six arrests... given suspended sentences..."
1963? NYC's Bellevue for 6 months with a serious liver condition and TB
1964: "discovered" by the great blues and jazz historian Frederick Ramsey III
1965: debut album, First Songs, recorded for Folkways Records on the same reel-to-reel machine that taped Leadbelly's Last Sessions.
1965: moved in with Peter Stampfel (of the Holy Modal Rounders), who would become his on again off again comrade in musical mayhem for fifteen years.
1960s: living with girlfriend 'Pasta' in Lambertville, New Jersey, picking apples; road trip to Mexico
1960s: Vermont, studying auto mechanics; Martha's Vineyard w/gf Kim (four kids?)
1960s: championed by boyhood friend Jesse Colin Young, who released his 2nd & 3rd albums on The Youngbloods' Warner Bros. imprint, Raccoon.
1970s: Staelbons, Vermont
1976 LP "Have Moicy" (Rounder) a collaboration with the The Unholy Modal Rounders and Jeffrey Frederick & The Clamtones, was named "the greatest folk album of the rock era" by the Village Voice's Robert Christgau [qv].
1990s: living with Mora Reinhardt in Richmond, Virginia; eight-track tape repairman
Touring: "Charlottesville, North Carolina to New York City, with Richmond, VA, Boston, Mass., Chicago, Ill., Columbus, OH, Rochester, NY, Buffalo, NY, and more points are being added to my circuit from time to time. Two tours of Germany and one tour of Ireland..."
Wheels: "Remember, when you see a dark green 70s Chevy van with a 4" by 8" wooden beam for a bumper going 50 mph on some interstate somewhere, don't forget you're passing a true American originator-so roll down your window and give him the thumbs up!"
Faves: Patty Loveless, Nanci Griffith, Lucinda Williams, Akito Ayano, Pam Tillis, The Kendalls, The Whites, The Sunburned Hand of Man, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, Erik Satie, and Charles Ives
http://www.robotwisdom.com/jorn/hurley.html.
Buy the CDs online at http://www.eastcentralone.com/acatalog/East_Central_One_Agency_Artists_16.html.
