Wino Wednesday: The Hidden Hand’s “Purple Neon Dream” Unplugged, 2007
“Purple Neon Dream” was the opening track on the last and most progressive of the three The Hidden Hand albums, The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote. Compared to some of what follows it, I wouldn’t go as to call it a highlight, but it does its job well enough. Like a lot of the record, it seems to lose its sense of structure about halfway through and just kind of collapse at its ending, which, incidentally, is also what the band did after The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote came out.
Be that as it may, and whatever brought about their end before they could do another full-length — by all indications it seems to have been a falling out between Wino and bassist/vocalist Bruce Falkinburg — The Resurrection of Whiskey Foote is a standout in the Wino catalog for how its textures unfold. Where sometimes Wino‘s heavier material retains the stripped-down structured feel of his acoustic work, the final Hidden Hand outing didn’t, and both Wino and Falkinburg pushed the band’s sound to places it hadn’t gone on either of the two prior albums.
All the more interesting, then, that Wino should wind up in Germany being recorded playing the song acoustic in what looks like a kickass shag chair in a kickass living room. The clip below of “Purple Neon Dream” predates Wino‘s acoustic debut, Adrift, by some three years, but it’s plain to see the roots of what would become that album taking shape in the below. Of course, in the interim, Wino‘s Wino trio would release their only LP, Punctuated Equilibrium (2009), followed all too soon by the death of bassist Jon Blank, and Wino would front the reformed Saint Vitus on European and US tours in 2009, so there were certainly plenty of other factors to consider in going from one to the next.
Still, this one’s a great listen. Hope you enjoy and have a happy Wino Wednesday:
long live wino!