Neighborhoods

by Ernest Hood

Overview

Privately issued in 1975, the one and only full-length created by Ernest Hood is a nostalgic scrapbook of scenes from mid-20th century rural America, particularly focusing on memories of childhood. The album's eight pieces are collages of small-town field recordings interspersed with pleasant, wistful synthesizer melodies, along with sprawling zither arrangements. Hood, a former big-band jazz guitarist who took up the zither after falling victim to polio, was a co-founder of Portland, Oregon community radio station KBOO, and he would routinely capture neighborhood sounds to incorporate into his radio programs, such as kids playing after school, or chirping crickets, barking dogs, and train whistles. The album resembles a radio play more than a conventional album, with long stretches of nothing but field recordings rather than instrumentation. The whole listening experience is bittersweet, funny, playful, and just innocent and weird in general, much like childhood itself. "At the Store" sounds like a pleasant Saturday afternoon stroll down to the corner store, hard-earned change in hand, for some candy and soda pop. "The Secret Place" is the soundtrack to being stuck inside during a thunderstorm and longing to be spending the day with friends at the playground. "After School" starts out with a twangy melody imitating bluegrass, then turns into an escapade of schoolyard taunting, with a chirping "Ring a Ring o' Roses" melody to match. Very cutesy, and maybe kind of annoying, but undeniably a slice of life. The brief conclusion, "Night Games," mainly consists of a rousing game of Kick the Can, punctuated by exuberant renditions of the theme from Happy Days. Barely heard during Hood's lifetime, the album eventually attained legendary status some four decades after it was first released, thanks to the rise of music blogs, YouTube algorithms, and other venues for the discovery of obscure, long-forgotten sounds. Much like Mother Earth's Plantasia by Mort Garson (another cult classic which was finally given an official reissue in 2019), Neighborhoods is a strange, singular relic from the past which has somehow become far more relevant than when it was first made. ~ Paul Simpson

Product Details

Release Date:	10/11/2019
Label:	Freedom To Spend
UPC:	0603786279044
Rank:	43923

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Ernest Hood   Primary Artist