Secretly Canadian announce Richard Swift compilation, 4 Hits & A Miss

At his legendary studio National Freedom, Richard Swift made albums with artists like The Shins, Damien Jurado, Sharon Van Etten, Lonnie Holley, Kevin Morby and Foxygen. His music and recording techniques were inspired by the urgent, raw American art of Bo Diddley, Walt Whitman, Ray Johnson, Captain Beefheart and Kerouac.

“There’s an old boy-scout myth I heard about as a child where, if you put the right person in the middle of the forest, armed with only a Swiss Army knife, they could build you a chapel," says musician and songwriter Kevin Morby, a friend and former collaborator of Swift’s.“When I think back on this myth I end up thinking of Richard Swift who, if dropped in the middle of the forest with only a $10 Radio Shack microphone, would somehow construct a studio and within that studio build you a chapel of sound. In fact, he essentially did exactly this at his own National Freedom studio in the middle of the Oregon woods, in a town called Cottage Grove where he recorded countless hours of both his own and other people’s music."

“Once they’ve passed away, most artists seem to finally rest, their catalogs resting eternally beside them. But Richard, from somewhere in the great beyond, seems restless, and the work he began down here on earth continues. His last album, The Hex, was released only a few months after his untimely death in 2018 and now, with 4 Hits and A Miss, we have a collection of his most beloved songs all in one place, as well as a new unheard ever before track “Common Law”, recorded around 2012," Morby continues.

“Whether you’re a casual fan or a Swift purist, 4 Hits & A Miss is either a perfect starting place or a destination for us devoted fans to find, yet again, something new to awe and inspire. Like a hidden room inside his already impressive chapel, there’s always something new to discover from our beloved friend and hero, the late great Richard Swift.”