Gary Higgins Red Hash US Orig’73 Nufusmoon Stereo WMI3673 1stPrivate Press Folk

$

313

INCREDIBLY RARE MASTERPIECE ORIGINAL PRIVATE US STEREO PRESSING OF ONE OF THE BEST ACID FOLK ALBUMS EVER

GARY HIGGINS ~ RED HASH (1973)

ONLY A HANDFUL OF ORIGINAL 1st PRESSING COPIES ARE KNOWN TO EXIST

ORIGINAL YELLOW 8.5” X 11” LYRIC SHEET INSERT WITH THE “COPYRIGHT 1973, WHATEVER MUSIC, INC.” CREDIT

MASTERING BY BELL SOUND STUDIOS, NEW YORK

UNPLAYED ARCHIVE COPY

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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Insanely rare original US private 1st Stereo pressing of Gary Higgins’ first and only album. In 1972, Higgins was caught up in a drug sting and faced serious charges. While awaiting sentence in early 1973, he realized that he might never again have the opportunity to make a record and recorded the album in a single forty-hour session. Higgins was jailed soon after recording was completed, so final mixing and production was left to a dedicated group of supporters. The album was titled “Red Hash” after a nickname given to the redheaded Higgins during his time in custody; this title was not chosen by Higgins and the album self-released on the tiny private Nufusmoon label. Although it received some airplay, “Red Hash” suffered from limited promotion and no live support, and failed to sell out its modest printing of a thousand copies. Having served time in prison, Higgins continued to compose and record music but didn’t release any of this material commercially and quickly faded into obscurity. At the end of the 1990s, a cult of devotion grew around “Red Hash” and its members spent almost two years trying to locate Higgins. It was the music supervisor Zach Cowie who worked at the time for the independent record label Drag City who finally managed to track Higgins down in 2004 and oversaw the first official re-release of “Red Hash” in July 2005. Soon after, Higgins played his first ever solo show, supported by members of Random Concept and his guitarist son, Graham. 1st print cardboard single-type cover published by Whatever Music Inc., Lakeville, CT with the catalog number WMI 3673 on the front and the top and bottom of the spine. This copy comes with an incredible rare yellow 8.5” x 11” double-sided lyric sheet insert which contains the “All music and lyrics by Gary E. Higgins. Copyright 1973, Whatever Music, Inc.” credit at the bottom of both sides. Original red 2.75” pressing ring labels with the catalog number WMI 3673 by Nufusmoon, a private music label located in Connecticut. 1st pressing vinyl mastered by Bell Sound Studios as indicated by the company’s “Bell Sound” machine stamp in the runout groove contains the 1st matrix numbers: Side 1 - WMI‧3673‧A Bre Bell Sound SON K-5768; Side 2 - WMI‧3673‧B Bre Bell Sound SON K-5769. The album comes with an original Nufusmoon plain white inner sleeve.

★

I grade the cover as Excellent Minus. The front and back are very clean and practically has no wear or scuffing, except for some very light barely noticeable hints of ring wear at the top and bottom of the front cover. The spine has some age discoloration and a little bit of scuffing. The cover doesn't have any splits, writing or residue. The original lyric insert is in Near Mint condition, just like the original inner sleeve. The sparkling vinyl looks like it has never been played having the beautiful clean mark-free labels. Therefore, I'll dare grading it as Mint-.  

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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