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Jim Ford: Demolition Expert

Rob Hughes, Uncut, January 2012

Ravishing set of unheard demos from fabled US country-soul brother

THE STORY OF Jim Ford is steeped in Southern myth. Revered by good buddies Bobby Womack and Sly Stone, covered by Aretha, sometime beau of Bobby Gentry (he even claimed to have written 'Ode To Billie Joe'), mentor to Nick Lowe and the pub-rock boom of the early '70s, boozer, brawler and drug abuser. It's a reputation that survives way beyond that of the sole album issued during his lifetime, 1969's glorious Harlan County, through decades of seclusion in Northern California and his still-suspicious death in a trailer park in 2007.

Total word count of piece: 333

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