John Wesley Harding's original foray into Gangsta Folk, recorded in San Francisco in 1997. Bonus tracks include Bruce Springsteen duet of "Wreck on the Highway".

19 MP3 Songs in this album (71:50) !
Related styles: ROCK: Folk Rock, FOLK: Folk Pop

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Details:
John Wesley Harding's first foray into Gangsta Folk, Awake was originally released on Zero Hour in 1997. It features one of JWH's finest collection of lyrics and melodies, and the talents of co-producer Chris von Sneidern, Kelly Hogan, Scott MacCaughey, Kurt Bloch, Robert Lloyd, Chuck Prophet and many more. This bonus edition, first released by Appleseed in 2000, also features a slew of bonus tracks, including JWH and Bruce Springsteen's otherwise unavailable duet of "Wreck on the Highway", JWH's cover of Springsteen's "Jackson Cage", two out-takes (Punch'n'Judy and Wooden Overcoat) and the complete version of the first and last tracks, here known as I Just Woke Up. A classic of the genre.

Wesley Stace was born in Hastings, Sussex in 1965, and educated at The King's School, Canterbury, and Jesus College, Cambridge. Under the name, John Wesley Harding, he has released 15 albums, ranging from traditional folk to full on pop music. His most recent pop release Adam's Apple (2004) was called "the finest album of his career" (All Music Guide), "one of his best, a sharp collection of pop that cleverly weds sunny melodies to dark matters" (The New Yorker) and "a dazzling piece of popcraft that shows wide range and real heart" (No Depression.) John Wesley Harding has been joined onstage by Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, John Prine, Bruce Springsteen (with whom he recorded a duet on his album Awake), Joan Baez, Peter Buck, Evan Dando, David Baddiel, Rick Moody, Scott MacCaughey and Robyn Hitchcock amongst others. He has appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Late Show with David Letterman, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His songs have been featured in films (including High Fidelity) and covered by other artists. His most recent record was "Songs of Misfortune", a (mostly) a capella recording by The Love Hall Tryst, featuring the ballads from his first novel, Misfortune. The recently released DVD "A Bloody Show" documents an epic show filmed at Bumbershoot in Seattle, featuring songs from Misfortune, on which JWH is accompanied by a rock band, a string quartet and The Love Hall Tryst, and readings from the novel. His new record "Who was Changed and Who was Dead", recorded with The Minus Five, is released in March 2009 by Popover Corps. His series of "Cabinet of Wonders" variety shows in Spring 2009 in New York City at Le Poisson Rouge include appearances by Rosanne Cash, Graham Parker, Josh Ritter, Rick Moody, Colson Whitehead and Jonathan Ames. His first novel, Misfortune, under his real name Wesley Stace, was published to great acclaim in 2004 by Little, Brown (USA) and Jonathan Cape (UK) - translations followed in Italy, France (where it has become a bestseller), Holland, Taiwan, Japan, Spain and Israel. It was nominated for The Guardian First Book Award, The Commonwealth Writers' Prize, The James Tiptree, Jr. Award, listed as one of the books of the year in The Washington Post and The Boston Phoenix, and was one of Amazon's Top Ten Novels of the Year. His second novel, BY GEORGE, was published in August 2007; it was one of the New York Public Library's Books To Remember of 2007, and Booklist Editor's Choice for books of the year. He has recently completed his third novel, and is currently artist-in-residence at Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ, where he curates the Words & Music Festival. He has lived in America since 1991, and resides in Fort Greene, Brooklyn with his wife Abbey, daughter Tilda and son Wyn.