Acclaimed Montreal country songwriter Li’l Andy is announcing The Complete Recordings of Hezekiah Procter (1925-1930), a multi-layered project 10 years in the making, and is coming on tour in Europe.
The Complete Recordings of Hezekiah Procter is a live medicine show act, a dazzling display of virtuosity by Canada’s most revered old-time and folk musicians, and a performance art piece that takes audiences back to the beginnings of country music.
The project is made up of 29 new recordings, a companion novel, and a new stage persona named “Hezekiah Procter”. “I created Hezekiah to be the kind of über-country singer in the tradition of Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, or Charlie Poole,” says Andy. “A self-destructive genius who burns out and fades away, leaving a handful of great recordings for 78rpm collectors and historians to obsess over.”
The accompanying novel to the album, also titled The Complete Recordings of Hezekiah Procter, was written during the COVID-19 lockdown when live shows and touring stopped. “When COVID hit, I suddenly had a lot of time to just sit in my studio and write,” Andy explains. “And writing Hezekiah’s life story in the novel made me imagine what songs he would write. So I began writing songs ‘as’ him. New ideas for his songs would make me rework parts of the novel and vice versa. It was a constant back-and-forth between the page and the guitar.”
To create an authentic 1930s sound for the album, Andy and his collaborators recorded on vintage recording equipment from the era itself, recording on a wire recorder manufactured in 1937 to create a facsimile of the 78rpm sound of early jazz, blues, and country recordings. That unique recording process is in full view in the video for the song “I See Jesus Comin’ Down the Road”, which sounds uncannily like an old-time gospel recording from the 1930s. The accompanying video was filmed in Earle Hall, a 100-year-old vaudeville in Wakefield, QC, and shows the singer’s transformation from “Li’l Andy” to his new stage persona of “Hezekiah Procter”.
“In my novel and the songs on this album, my character—Hezekiah Procter—is a medicine show entertainer and a country music star from the 1920s,” explains Andy. “We wanted a location that would transport people to that time, and match our costumes. Finding Earle Hall was a huge stroke of luck that perfectly matched how this project is a step further back into the tradition of country music than I ever attempted before.”
The Complete Recordings of Hezekiah Procter comes as a deluxe box set including two vinyl LPs, the companion novel, and digital downloads.
About:
Lil’ Andy is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Montreal. Lil’Andy has five albums on his name, contributed to a Leonard Cohen Tribute, and is celebrated in his own country as a “musician-musician”, one of the best-kept secrets for the European mainland if you ask me. Time for the European mainland to find something of this fantastic innovative project The Complete Recordings of Hezekiah Procter (1925-1930) as well.
Confirmed European Tour Dates
14/06: Copenhagen, DK – Alice
15/06: Norderstedt, DE – Music Star
16/06: Drachten, NL – Iduna
17/06: Nijmegen, NL – Kids ‘n’ Billies Festival
18/06: Terschelling, NL – Oerol Festival
19/06: Lint, BE – ’t Groot Verzet
20/06: Krefeld, DE – Kulturrampe
23/06: Bottelare, BE – ’t Ketske
24/06: Rotterdam, NL – Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival
25/06: Middelburg, NL – Eindeloos Eiland Festival
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