Exclusive Shindig! Qobuz playlist #25: It’s So Profound – Mellow Loners & Misfits

We’re very excited to be media partners with the truly unique online streaming platform and download store Qobuz. This month, the 25th of our monthly bespoke playlists, which take in all manner of genres and sub-genres, scenes and beyond, then and now, shines a light on “loner-folk”

Play here or use the scrollable frame with track list below. You can sign up for a free trial today. Plans start from £10.83 per month. For more on Qobuz read our interview with MD Dan Mackta here

What’s in a term? A sub- or contrived genre are big business in record collecting circles. Back in 2008 anything deemed “acid-folk” tripled in value. And yes, it’s true, us music fanatics do like a catch-all term to signify the deeper apspects of an obscure private-press or forgotten artist. If sounding a bit like The Incredible String Band or Comus constitutes acid-folk what in the devil is “loner-folk”? For me, the benchmark has to be Leonard Cohen’s Songs Of Leonard Cohen. This poetic desolate music is nothing other than lonely, and clearly it inspired many bedroom troubadours peeved off with the world and their lot in life.

The music contained in this playlist is all from North America (including Canada), stemming from roughly the 1967 to 1980 period. Most is acoustic, some solely. Other tracks feature electric instrumentation, some later efforts synths, and one or two efforts include orchestration. There’s no wrong or right way. Predominantly the featured music is private-press but there are major label releases too, including Tim Buckley, Neil Young, and the aforementioned Leonard Cohen. One look at the song titles will let you know what’s in store. From ‘Hey, Who Really Cares?’ (Linda Perhacs), ‘Present Your Errors’ (Richard Kneeland) and ‘Am I Really Here Alone?’ (Philip Lewin) to ‘I Can’t Sleep At Night’ (Gary Higgins), ‘Where Are You?’ (Tim McKenna) and ‘Past The Point Of Caring’ (Doug Firebaugh), the mood is often stark, the tone minor-key, and the performance occasionally fractured and distant.  As the Vietnam War raged away, questions were inevitably asked, not to mention the disillusionment caused by friends dying of drug overdoses. (Hear all of Neil Young’s Tonight The Night for the barest exposé of this.)

And hey, sometimes being alone is just fine.