Major archival unearthing from guitarist Loren Connors: this restores a previously lost cassette of Loren on guitar and vocals, recorded live in a cemetery next to the grave of the legendary Midnight Mary in Evergreen Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut in March 1981. The Curse Of Midnight Mary functions as the missing link between Connors’ earlier, more outside acoustic blues and vocals style that were documented across the rare Unaccompanied Acoustic Guitar Improvisations series and his later more ‘lyrical’ work with Kath Bloom and Suzanne Langille. It feels like one of his most deeply-sourced blues guitar performances, with his pinched slide work echoing the sanctified feel of classic performances from Blind Willie Johnson or Charley Patton as he works reflective phrases from gospel songs and traditional hymns into feral instants while singing and howling to himself like he’s performing a séance. This is an essential document of one of the main guitar innovators of the past half-century at an early, formative peak. Highly recommended.