The Music
Take a big helping of traditional cowboy music, stir in a little country honky-tonk and western swing, some southern blues and rockabilly, a bit of Louisiana Cajun, a taste of the high lonesome , add pinch of Mexican Norteno Accordion, and a spoonful of Hawaiian slack-key guitar and you’re getting close to the tasty gumbo of styles you’ll hear in the music of Michael Hurwitz.
Initially Mike was influenced by the country and cowboy music he heard growing up in rural Wyoming, His Mother turned him on to the Southern country blues and jazz from her Mississippi home. Then years on the road, picking with anyone and everyone , and he absorbed many of the regional styles played in the different parts of the country that he traveled.
Michael plays his vintage Gibsons, Martins and Nationals with notable skill and innovation
in a number of classic guitar styles: From bluesy Delta slide and Piedmont fingerstyle, to country Travis picking and flat picking, Hawaiian slack key and some Mexican sounding things on the Bandurria, a small 12 string lute-like instrument from Spain. He uses alternate tunings and chord voicings not commonly heard in traditional music. He plays a twangy Telecaster like the Bakersfield country pickers , jazzy Western Swing, Memphis rockabilly, and electric blues straight out of Chicago. He sings in a deep rich batitone, with a relaxed, blues influenced country style that is all his own.
Mike is a songwriter of uncommon ability. He can be lowdown and lonesome or funny and irreverent, but always the songs come through as well crafted , honest, and interesting,
Michael’s long time band “the Aimless Drifters” share his unique vision of country-blues and cowboy music. There’s pedal steel, piano, accordion, mandolin, fiddle, harp, bass and drums. As Sing Out! stated “ Hurwitz sings in a warm , friendly baritone voice and plays guitar in a fluid finger picking style. His backup band are a very tasteful lot and are anything but aimless or drifting as they play wonderfully in traditional blues, folk , country and western swing styles.”
The Albums
Cowboy Fandango - Michael Hurwitz and the Aimless Drifters with Juni Fisher, Pop Wagner, Nancy Thorwardson. (October 2007)
An album of original cowboy songs
"This record is for all the cowboys, living and gone, that I've had the good fortune , and sometimes misfortune, to ride with over the years. Don't let your spurs rust boys."
"Hurwitz is a superior writer with a sure eye for the foolish and tragic in the new-old west, Ian Tyson himself couldn't improve on this one"- Jerome Clark, Rambles .net
" Hurwitz tells engaging tales populated by characters that are wacky and weird but completely believable" ... Planet Jackson Hole
Track List and MP3's (bolded means mp3 on click)
Badger DanceMustang Motel
Howard & Kerry
Ghost Ranch
Rambler's Dream
Spaceships O'r Wyoming
In From The Cold
Check The Gas
Old Green Truck
Garden Spot Pavillion
Little Blue Roan
Rusty Old Spurs
Tom Horn
Blue Coyote - Michael Hurwitz and the Aimless Drifters. (July 2006)
Classic Southern Country Blues
"Some aimless Drifters hung out at my place in Alta for a few days in June and picked, strummed, sang, blew stomped, squeezed,smoked, drank, laughed and made this record of some our favorite old blues tunes from the 1920's to the 1950's. There's songs from both the black and the white blues tradition, and one of my own, all done Wyoming style We call it "Prairie Blues"
"... the album is a delight from start to finish" --- Sing Out!
"...Hurwitz's "Prairie Blues" comes across as natural as breathing" --- John Conquest, 3rd Coast Music
Track Listand MP3's (bolded means mp3 on click)
Prodigal Son
Morning Blues
Cannonball Blues
Dehlia
Can't Judge a Book By the Cover
California Blues
Frankie and Albert
Get your Business Straight
No Money Down
Honkytonk Blues
Payday
Milwaukee Blues
Candyman
Bunkhouse Blues - Michael Hurwitz, and the Aimless Drifters (Nov. 2002)
Mostly original blues, cowboy songs, country ballads and western swing, with covers of tunes by Merle Travis, Woody Guthrie, Blind Willie McTell
"This record is for my son ,Joey Joaquin ,almost eight years old and wild as he can be, The songs are about hobos and trains, cowboys and horses, miners and tunnels, outlaws and "the law"... some of our favorite things to laugh talk and dream about... with a little blues and Texas Swing thrown in for good measure"
"Highly Recommended"--Sing Out!
"One of the better real country releases of the year" -- Roots Town
Track List and MP3's (bolded means mp3 on click)
Goin' Down t' Vicksburg
Little Stream of Whiskey
Lonesome Cajun Song
Old Broncbuster
Call Me
Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues
Pretty Boy Floyd
Mother of a Miner's Child
Little Bit Crazy
Dark as a Dungeon
When the Work's All Done
Wyoming Mountain Home - Alta School Cowboy Choir
with Michael Hurwitz and the Aimless Drifters (April 2005)
Traditional, classic and original cowboy songs sung by a talented group of kids from a rural Wyoming school
produced by Michael Hurwitz
made possible through a grant from the Wyoming Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts
"The grade school kids, all 52 of 'em , many from fourth and fifth generation ranch families, go to the little Alta school, just a mile from the Idaho border, just like their parents and grandparents did. This album is theirs--an audio snapshot of a quickly disappearing way of life. Some of the songs are traditional cowboy songs over a hundred years old, others are newer, and some the kids and I wrote together. We all had a grand old time doin' this , I think you can hear it in the music"
" Just plain makes me feel good when I listen to it.. . this is one you definitely want to add to your collection" -- Tommy Tucker , Cowboy Troubadour
Track List and MP3's (bolded means mp3 on click)
When The Catus Is In Bloom
Whoopi-ti-yi-yo
My Old Ranch
The Lights Of Cheyenne
Ridin' and Writin'
Mama Don't Allow
Old Paint/Goodbye Old Paint
Ain't No Bugs On Me
Flop-Eared Mule
Wyoming Mountain Home
Old Chisholm Trail