The Stark Reality
Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop

Definitive reissue of the album Mojo Magazine called “one of the most prized 'funk’ artifacts of all time... a project that allies Hendrix-stoned guitars, heavily-fuzzed vibraphone and Bitches Brew rhythms…"

"The music of the Stark Reality is as playful as it is wild… as fantastic as it is frazzled.” - Rolling Stone

Lacquered by Bernie Grundman in an all-analog transfer directly from the master tapes. Contains an extensive, oversized booklet with rare photos, liner notes and annotation.

The story of The Stark Reality’s Discovers The Hoagy Carmichael’s Music Shop begins in Boston the late 1960s, with a wild jazz – as psychedelic as they were modal, as funky as they were swinging - band based in Boston landing a deal with Ahmad Jamal’s nascent AJP imprint after the legendary jazz pianist heard their demo recordings.

They had been tasked by the great American songsmith Hoagy Carmichael’s son, Hoagy Bix Carmichael, to create interpretations of the elder Carmichael’s children songs for a Mr. Rogers-themed show that the younger Carmichael was producing for local PBS affiliate WGBH.

The quartet - Monty Stark on vibes, Phil Morrison on bass, Vinnie Johnson on drums and a very young John Abercrombie on fuzz guitar – recorded an album that flopped upon its initial release and went on to become one of – as Mojo Magazine noted - “the most prized 'funk’ artifacts of all time... a project that allies Hendrix-stoned guitars, heavily-fuzzed vibraphone and Bitches Brew rhythms…”

For RSD Black Friday, Now-Again Records, who has kept the Stark Reality’s music in print since 2002, presents the definitive reissue of The Stark Reality’s Discovers The Hoagy Carmichael’s Music Shop. Lacquered by Bernie Grundman in an all-analog transfer directly from the master tapes maintained by the Stark Reality’s photographer Jim Bourne, it’s presented in a replica gatefold sleeve, and contains an extensive, oversized page booklet with rare photos, liner notes and annotation.