Michael Hurley, a beloved underground singer-songwriter who emerged in the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 1960s, has died at age 83.

“It is with a resounding sadness that the Hurley family announces the recent sudden passing of the inimitable Michael Hurley,” read a statement shared on Thursday by Hurley’s recording label, No Quarter. “The ‘Godfather of freak folk’ was for a prolific half-century the purveyor of an eccentric genius and compassionate wit. He alone was Snock. There is no other.”

His publicist confirmed to Rolling Stone that Hurley died in his home state of Oregon, but did not provide a cause of death. He recently completed a new album and had just returned from weekend performances at the Big Ears music festival in Knoxville, Tenn.

Known as a pioneer of “outsider folk,” Hurley cut his teeth performing at New York City coffeehouses before releasing his debut album, “First Songs,” in 1964.

He followed that up with “Armchair Boogie,” “Hi Fi Snock Uptown” and “Have Moicy!,” ultimately releasing more than 30 albums over 60 years. Among his unique catalogue include the essential folk-blues tunes “The Werewolf,” “Twilight Zone” and “Hog of the Forsaken,” which earned him both underground and critical acclaim.

Lucinda Williams, Cat Power and the Violent Femmes are among his younger peers who have cited him as inspiration.

But despite what became a prolific career, the self-taught Hurley was early on considered an “outsider” from the more traditional folk contemporaries of his era — namely Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and Fred Neil — largely due to the eccentricity associated with his so-called “hobo lifestyle.”

But the moniker never fazed him.

“Calling me an outsider artist … yes, I think it’s apt. It’s taken me a long time to join the gang,” he told The Guardian in 2021.

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