Grimwood

Recorded in 1969 and released as a private pressing in 1974, Michael Yonkers’ Grimwood is a folky affair that opens with “Damsel Fair and Your Angel”; it sounds like Leonard Cohen crept into Tom Waits’ boiler room and recorded it on a handful of weird homemade instruments. A do-it-yourselfer to the core, Yonkers built his own gear (and recording studio) out of the hoarded electronic junk that surrounded his Minneapolis living space. “Sandcastle” plays like a sea chantey sung by an old sailor with a double case of the bends and cabin fever, while “Lonely Fog” delivers more loner folk with an acoustic strumming, an incessant buzz that somehow changes pitch to match the chords, and Yonkers’ distant vocals, which sound like they were tracked by putting a microphone in front of a telephone receiver. A limp and tired trumpet accompanies Yonkers on “The Day Is Through,” a tune that exemplifies utter exhaustion.