Richard Buckner discs to see digital reissue

Three out-of-print Richard Buckner albums, including his debut, will be digitally reissued by Merge Records on March 10.

The label will bring out 1995′s Bloomed, 2000′s The Hill and 2002′s Impasse. There are many who will argue that his debut, Bloomed, is his best (I’m not among them, preferring the two MCA albums that followed), while The Hill and Impasse were both brave experimental albums that found him putting poems from Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology to music (The Hill) and creating a libretto of sorts with each song reading like a short story with no verses or chorus to speak of (Impasse).

Merge got Buckner to say a bit about each disc, and the results are predictably bittersweet and funny. About the recording sessions for Bloomed, he says, “We finished four days later and I flew back to San Francisco, dismembered the band and embarked on a tour that would last about 15 years (or a few days, if you count what I actually remember).” The uncompromising The Hill, which was one long track when it was first released, will now come with normal track breaks: “My thought, at the time, was to have the listener read the poems along with the music as one piece, since some of the characters in the book belong next to each other, story-wise. My demands have lowered with age, though, and the digital re-release on Merge is indexed song by song.” He has little to say about Impasse: “Somewhere between tours of the lower 48 and ice hikes to The Black Dog in the Fog, Impasse was finally completed and released in 2002.”

No word on whether the EP Impass-ette will be included with Impasse. That release included acoustic versions of two Impasse tracks and three otherwise unavailable songs.

Digital release is probably wise. As good as Buckner’s discs are, and as much critical acclaim as he gets, he just doesn’t sell. We talked about that in 1999 (pre-The Hill) when he came through Iowa on tour. “I know I don’t sell that many records, I know that for a fact,” he said. “But I tour so much, and play all these shows, and I just think, ‘Where are all of you coming from? You’re not buying the records.’ “He went on to say that he saw The Hill, originally released on the tiny Chicago label Overcoat Recordings, as an experiment. “So I’ll see how many I sell of this. Can I sell 2,000? I don’t think so, but I don’t know.”

There is word of a possible new album from Buckner next year on Merge: “The negotiations are being held up, though, by our lawyers. Evidently, there are a few kinks based on something called “The BBQ Clause” There is a “use of sauce” stipulation that has yet to be worked out (Porky vs. Supreme Court, 1873).” It would be his first since 2006′s excellent The Meadow.

MP3: “Gauzy Dress” from Bloomed
MP3: “Emily Sparks” from The Hill
MP3: “Born in to Giving” from Impasse