Demolition Expert: Rare Acoustic Demos

Liner Note Author: Jeb Loy Nichols.
Illustrators: L-P Anderson; R.A. Andreas; Per Magnusson .
Photographers: L-P Anderson; R.A. Andreas; Per Magnusson .
When Jim Ford died in 2007 he was on the brink of receiving some genuine recognition, something that eluded him throughout his life due to some combination of bad luck and bad behavior. Just months after Bear Family released the tremendous expanded reissue of Harlan County called The Sounds of Our Time, he was found dead in his trailer home, a tragic end to his life but his legacy continued to grow after his death, thanks in no small part to Bear Family's 2007 disc and its four subsequent collections of unreleased material, the last of which is 2011's Demolition Expert. Its title derives from one of the 29 tracks here, all acoustic, all recorded at home. Technically, these are demos yet that doesn't quite feel right, considering how there are some covers here -- Harlan Howard's "Heartaches by the Number," Hank Williams' "You Win Again," Shel Silverstein's "A Couple More Years" -- and some songs he either recorded or gave away before the recordings here. Of course, it's difficult to pinpoint the origins of recordings that were undated and left behind, so it's best to enjoy Demolition Expert for what it is: a snapshot of what it might have been like to hang out with Ford for an evening, where the stories and songs flow as steadily as the beer. Some of these tracks are no more than fragments, interrupted by friends or phone calls or various substances, some are fully finished, some are tantalizing in what they could have been if Ford had either the discipline or occasion to complete them. The raggedness might be a little frustrating but it's also charming: it captures all the natural gifts and flaws of Ford, and for the dedicated -- who, let's be frank, are the audience for this collection of rough, unpolished gems -- it's a necessary listen. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine