Mike Hurwitz: New Album

"Mike Hurwitz, master of laughs and tears out on the range, has done it once again" - Jerome Clark,  Rambles.net

Chrome on the Range - Michael Hurwitz and The Aimless Drifters, with Tracy Nelson and Gary McMahan(Meadowlark Records, June 2010)

Click here to listen to some tracks off the new album...

Click here to buy "Chrome on the Range"...

Well folks here it is, an album of 12 new songs written over the past couple years,  with covers of two of my favorite songs, one by Elizabeth Cotten, and one by my pal Gary McMahan, who did one of mine on his last album.  As usual, a Mulligan stew of American music styles.  Western Swing, Cajun, honky-tonk, country, blues, but the songs mostly have some kind of common cowboy thread , which is just how my stuff seems to turn out. Too many years livin’ the life I guess. The Aimless Drifters played some true and tasty licks , the great Tracy Nelson and Gary McMahan  sang their butts off, and we all had a fine old time. Hope you like it.

~ Mike 

1.  Your Dancin' Shoes (Michael Hurwitz, Cooper Creek Music BMI)
"This hard time talk is gettin' old, it's all you ever hear"  so let's go out and have a little fun.
Mike  - Vocal, Acoustic, and Electric Guitars,  Tom Broderick - Pedal Steel, Jerry Linn - Bass,  Tim Hodgeson - Fiddle, Ed Domer - Drums

2. He's a Rodeo (Michael Hurwitz, Cooper Creek Music BMI)
A song written for my son, Joey Joaquin, a wild one whom I'm afraid might be a payback to his Dad.
Mike  - Vocal, Acoustic and Electric  Guitars, Tom Broderick - Pedal Steel, Jerry Linn - Bass, Ed Domer - Drums

3. Love Song (Michael Hurwitz, Cooper Creek Music BMI)
My folks were married for over fifty years, I was thinking what it would be like to be hitched up to some old gal for that long.
Mike  - Vocals, Acoustic and Electric Guitars,  Tom Lulias - Pedal Steel,, Jay Vern - Piano,  Jerry Linn - Bass, Ed Domer - Drums

4. Uncle Lucky (Michael Hurwitz, Cooper Creek Music BMI)
My uncle Lucky was a crop duster down in Mississippi. He had and old Stearman biplane and used to take me flyin'  with him. What a rush!
Mike  - Vocal, Acoustic and Electric  Guitars,  John Magnie - Accordian , Tom Lulias - Pedal Steel, Jerry Linn - Bass, Ed Domer - Drums

5.  Roy Rogers in Japan (Michael Hurwitz, Cooper Creek Music BMI)
I was playing a big cowboy festival in Santa Clarita, California. A little Japanese guy came up with a stack of my CDs to sign. He told how much they loved cowboy music, especially Roy Rogers, so I wrote this on my way home.
Mike - Vocal, Acoustic Guitars, Tom Lulias - Dobro, Jerry Linn - Bass

6.  Out of the Fryin' Pan (Michael Hurwitz, Cooper Creek Music BMI)
A Gospel tune (we can all use a little savin'!),  with my favorite female singer Tracy Nelson.
Mike -  Vocal, acoustic Guitar,  Tracy Nelson - Vocal, Tom Broderick - Pedal Steel, Jay Vern - Piano,  Tim Hodgeson - Fiddle, Jerry Linn - Bass, Ed Domer - Drums, Ben Winship - Harmony Vocal

7. Ed Trafton (Michael Hurwitz, Cooper Creek Music BMI)
A true story about a local character, Ed Trafton , the mail carrier in Teton valley, who was a convicted horse thief, who singlehandedly robbed the tourist stage in Yellowstone Park 14 times on one day in 1914. He might have got away with it, but his wife caught him with another woman and turned him in.  After he got out of prison the second time, he went out to California and unsuccessfully tried to get into the new film industry, where he died.
Mike - Vocal ,Acoustic Guitar, John Magnie - Accordian, Tom Broderick - Pedal Steel, Tom Lulias - Dobro, Jerry Linn - Bass

8.  Cowboys Gone Wild (Michael Hurwitz, Cooper Creek Music BMI)
A song about misspent youth.  Tracy Nelson sings the part of the old barmaid with gusto and finesse.
Mike-  Vocal, Acoustic and Electric  Guitars, Tracy Nelson - Vocal, Tom Broderick - Pedal Steel, Tim Hodgeson - Fiddle,  Jerry Linn - Bass, Ed Domer - Drums

9.  Edith (Michael Hurwitz, Cooper Creek Music BMI)
Another true song.  Edith Sargent was an eccentric woman who, around the turn of the century, used to take off all her clothes, climb up in a tree near Jackson Hole, play her fiddle, and wave to the tourists on their way to Yellowstone. The local gossips had a heyday and when her family came and put her away in a mental institution, her husband John killed himself with his old Sharps buffalo rifle...all the elements of  a true gothic romance.
Mike - Vocal, Acoustic and Electric  Guitars, Tom Broderick - Pedal steel, Tim Hodgeson - Fiddle,  Jerry Linn - Bass,  Ed Domer - Drums , Percussion

10.  Shake Sugaree (Elizabeth Cotten, Stormking Music, arr. by Michael Hurwitz - used by permission)
An old song Libba Cotten wrote with her grandchildren. I've been doin' it for many years.
Mike Hurwitz - Vocal, High Strung Guitar, Tom Broderick - Pedal Steel,  Jerry Linn - Bass

11.  Real Live Buckeroo (Gary McMahan, Yodelin Yahoo Music BMI - used by permission)
Gary Mcmahan is an old friend and one my favorite songwriters.  That's him singin' with me on this, as if one seedy old cowboy singer wasn't enough.
Mike - Vocal, Acoustic and Electric Guitars,  Gary McMahan - Vocal, Tom Broderick - Pedal steel, Tom Lulias - Dobro, Jerry Linn - Bass, Ed Domer - Drums

12.  Poor Cowboy (Michael Hurwitz, Cooper Creek Music BMI)
A song about a regular old cowboy-rancher. Nothing romantic here.
Mike - Vocal, Acoustic and Electric Guitars,  Tom Broderick - Pedal Steel, Tim Hodgeson - Fiddle, Jerry Linn - Bass, Ed Domer - Drums

13.  Home Town Reel (Michael Hurwitz, Cooper Creek Music BMI)
Once or twice a year, we get down to play for the folks in Centennial Valley Wyoming,  where I grew up. This one's for them.
Mike Hurwitz - Vocal, Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Tom Broderick - Pedal steel, Tim Hodgeson - Fiddle, Jerry Linn - Bass, Ed Domer - Drums

14.  Minnie Sang the Blues (Michael Hurwitz, Cooper Creek Music BMI)
Memphis Minnie was a great blues singer from the 1920s . My Mother turned me on to Minnie's music when I was a little kid.
Mike - Acoustic Guitars, Tom Lulias - Dobro,  Jerry Linn - Bass

- Produced by Mike Hurwitz
- Recorded at Blue Coyote Sound, Alta ,Wy.
- Additional Recording:
      Jays' Place, Nashville, Tn.,  The Henhouse, Victor, Id
      The Music Parlor at Grandpa's Farm, Burns, Tn.
- Mixed at The Henhouse, Victor, Id. by Ben Winship and Mike Hurwitz
- Mastered at Airshow, Boulder , Co. by Jim Wilson
- Photos by Jon Cornell, Richard Johnson,  James Wynn,  Joey Hurwitz
- Chrome Buffalo Sculpture by Lou Wille
- Graphic Design by Joe Tondro-Smith