v/a: Wayfaring Strangers: Lonesome Heroes

Label: Numero Group

This is the third release in Numero’s Wayfaring Strangers series of folk compilations, this one focusing on obscure ’70s male American singer-songwriters (though the release dates among the 17 compiled tracks range from 1970 all the way to 1984, only three are from the ’80s; there is one Brit for variety). Jack Hardy and Robb Kunkel are the best known — or, at least, the guys I’d heard of before — but as usual with Numero, there are many small gems to be found. And they really had to dig to find some of these on private pressings that practically ensured obscurity. The album title is not just a celebration of solo artists accompanying themselves on acoustic guitars, but also a theme of the collected songs: solitude, whether enriching (Jim Ransom’s “It’s So Profound”) or depressed (David Kauffman’s “Kiss Another Day Goodbye,” from an album titled Songs from Suicide Bridge), and any number of points in between those extremes. (Steve)