Devotees of Richard Swift know that his catalog is sprawly and imaginative, packed with as many finely-honed stone cold classics as one-take, madman experiments. The gems take all shapes and sizes, and while it doesn’t phase the diehard, it does make Swift’s music tricky to introduce to the newcomer: Where to start? What makes the cut? How many crooners? How many wild ones? It’s with this in mind that Secretly Canadian presents '4 Hits & A Miss', our humble swing at gathering the forty-seven minutes and fourteen songs that can initiate the uninitiated. If you don’t know Richard Swift, let the incomparable Kevin Morby catch you up: There’s an old boy-scout myth I heard about as a child where, if you put the right person in the middle of the forest, armed with only a Swiss Army knife, they could build you a chapel.
When I think back on this myth I end up thinking of Richard Swift who, if dropped in the middle of the forest with only a $10 Radio Shack microphone, would somehow construct a studio and within that studio build you a chapel of sound. In fact, he essentially did exactly this at his own National Freedom studio in the middle of the Oregon woods, in a town called Cottage Grove where he recorded countless hours of both his own and other people’s music.
Those chapels of sound will, and I have witnessed it already, awe and inspire generations to come - in the same way that those stone chapels of early Europe do. Each leaves people bewildered and wondering: how was something so massive and so beautiful constructed with such minimal and archaic tools - and in Richard’s case, so quickly?
Once they’ve passed away, most artists seem to finally rest, their catalogs resting eternally beside them. But Richard, from somewhere in the great beyond, seems restless, and the work he began down here on earth continues. His last album, 'The Hex', was released only a few months after his untimely death in 2018 and now, with '4 Hits and A Miss', we have a collection of his most beloved songs all in one place, as well as a new unheard ever before track 'Common Law', recorded around 2012.
Whether you’re a casual fan or a Swift purist, '4 Hits & A Miss' is either a perfect starting place or a destination for us devoted fans to find, yet again, something new to awe and inspire. Like a hidden room inside his already impressive chapel, there’s always something new to discover from our beloved friend and hero, the late great Richard Swift.
Enjoy.
When I think back on this myth I end up thinking of Richard Swift who, if dropped in the middle of the forest with only a $10 Radio Shack microphone, would somehow construct a studio and within that studio build you a chapel of sound. In fact, he essentially did exactly this at his own National Freedom studio in the middle of the Oregon woods, in a town called Cottage Grove where he recorded countless hours of both his own and other people’s music.
Those chapels of sound will, and I have witnessed it already, awe and inspire generations to come - in the same way that those stone chapels of early Europe do. Each leaves people bewildered and wondering: how was something so massive and so beautiful constructed with such minimal and archaic tools - and in Richard’s case, so quickly?
Once they’ve passed away, most artists seem to finally rest, their catalogs resting eternally beside them. But Richard, from somewhere in the great beyond, seems restless, and the work he began down here on earth continues. His last album, 'The Hex', was released only a few months after his untimely death in 2018 and now, with '4 Hits and A Miss', we have a collection of his most beloved songs all in one place, as well as a new unheard ever before track 'Common Law', recorded around 2012.
Whether you’re a casual fan or a Swift purist, '4 Hits & A Miss' is either a perfect starting place or a destination for us devoted fans to find, yet again, something new to awe and inspire. Like a hidden room inside his already impressive chapel, there’s always something new to discover from our beloved friend and hero, the late great Richard Swift.
Enjoy.
TRACK LISTING
1. The Original Thought
2. Dirty Jim
3. Would You?
4. Atlantic Ocean
5. Buildings In America
6. Common Law
7. Broken Finger Blues
8. Lady Luck
9. A Song For Milton Feher
10. The Songs Of National Freedom
11. The Novelist
12. Ballad Of You Know Who
13. Whitman
14. Walking Without Effort Theme