Clem Hutchins

 

"Clem Hutchins Does It Again"

 

Excellent review of this album here :

Clem Hutchins "Clem Hutchins Does It Again" (Jaguar Records, 1972-?) (LP)

A singularly weird record by a one-man band from Phoenix, Arizona, who plays an amazingly eccentric combination of acoustic guitar, percussion, and some kind of toy piano. He alternates between manic energy and clompy calm, singing sometimes, including a few old-fashioned sentimental tunes from the pre-honkytonk country tradition. Best of all is the intensely primitive production quality, which gives this disc a disjointed, otherworldly, DIY quality that lofi-sters like Hasil Adkins or Eugene Chadbourne could only dream of, particularly the distant-sounding, sung-into-a-tin-can vocals. There are layers of mystery surrounding this disc, which pairs the cryptic front cover with a blank white back, and one little name on the inner label that cracks things open, but just a little bit. "Clem Hutchins" seems to have been a stage name for "Jon Cristi," which in turn seems to have been a pen name for Henry Collins Edwards, who registered several of these songs with the Library Of Congress around 1970. He may have been at this for a long, long time: the LOC also records a few songs from the 1940s -- "In Sailor Town" (1943); "Armful Of Love" (1944); and "Black Dan" (1947) -- registered by a guy named Henry Collins Edwards, Jr., who was living in Los Angeles at the time. None of those war-era songs are on this album, although he may have recorded them elsewhere; Clem Hutchins also released a string of singles on his Jaguar label, including many of the tracks gathered here, bracketed by a few early 'Sixties singles (1963's "The Ramblin' Blues" and "Chasin' The Blues Away," from 1965) and some from the late 'Seventies. (On at least one of his singles he claimed to have a backing band called The Haymakers... no info about them, either, alas.) Anyway, this seems to be a collection of his singles from the '60s and '70s, possibly with additional "new" material to round things out. No release date, but it was probably from between 1970 and '75. Any additional information is welcome!