Cargo Records

The Curse of Midnight Mary

In 1981 guitarist Loren Connors took his tape recorder to the graveyard where the legendary Midnight Mary's grave lies in New Haven, Connecticut. The curse is: Anyone who gets caught in her graveyard past midnight will die the next day. But Connors, like a young fool, taped in that place, making this album. Lost and forgotten, a cassette of this music -- made at Evergreen Cemetery -- was found by chance in 2008.

Recorded between Connors'. eight volume Unaccompanied Acoustic Guitar Improvisations LP series and the folk albums he would make with Kath Bloom, these nine pieces meld those distinct, haunting styles. Connors, singing in a trance like moan, reforms the Mississippi Delta blues on acoustic guitar with flashes of melodic hooks and a percussive guitar style that erupts into boogie-woogie riffs and other world spirituals. Connors always wished this album was available on LP but at the time he never issued it on his Daggett imprint -- now it is. Pressed in a 515 edition, the LP's packaging mirrors the Daggett-style with paste on cover art by Connors, back liner notes and hand stamped labels. Each LP is hand numbered.