4 Hits & A Miss - Essential Richard Swift

Devotees of Richard Swift know that his catalog issprawly and imaginative, packed with as many finely-honedstone cold classics as one-take, madman experiments. Thegems take all shapes and sizes, and while it doesn't phase thediehard, it does make Swift's music tricky to introduce to thenewcomer: Where to start? What makes the cut? How manycrooners? How many wild ones? It's with this in mind thatSecretly Canadian presents 4 Hits & A Miss, our humble swing atgathering the forty-seven minutes and fourteen songs that caninitiate the uninitiated. If you don't know Richard Swift, let theincomparable Kevin Morby catch you up:There's an old boy-scout myth I heard about as a childwhere, if you put the right person in the middle of the forest,armed with only a Swiss Army knife, they could build you achapel.When I think back on this myth I end up thinking ofRichard Swift who, if dropped in the middle of the forest withonly a $10 Radio Shack microphone, would somehow constructa studio and within that studio build you a chapel of sound. Infact, he essentially did exactly this at his own National Freedomstudio in the middle of the Oregon woods, in a town calledCottage Grove where he recorded countless hours of both hisown and other people's music.Those chapels of sound will, and I have witnessed italready, awe and inspire generations to come - in the same waythat those stone chapels of early Europe do. Each leaves peoplebewildered and wondering: how was something so massive andso beautiful constructed with such minimal and archaic tools -and in Richard's case, so quickly?Once they've passed away, most artists seem to finallyrest, their catalogs resting eternally beside them. But Richard,from somewhere in the great beyond, seems restless, and thework he began down here on earth continues. His last album,The Hex, was released only a few months after his untimelydeath in 2018 and now, with 4 Hits and A Miss, we have acollection of his most beloved songs all in one place, as well as anew unheard ever before track "Common Law", recordedaround 2012.Whether you're a casual fan or a Swift purist, 4 Hits & AMiss is either a perfect starting place or a destination for usdevoted fans to find, yet again, something new to awe andinspire. Like a hidden room inside his already impressive chapel,there's always something new to discover from our belovedfriend and hero, the late great Richard Swift."Enjoy.