'Reason To Believe: The Songs of Tim Hardin' tribute album released (Photos)

'Reason To Believe - The Songs of Tim Hardin' is now available digitally, and will be available on CD February 26th on Full Time Hobby Records. The tribute album features covers of Tim Hardin's songs by Mark Lanegan, Smoke Fairies and Okkervil River, among others.

"I've always been haunted by the devastating voice and beautiful songs of Tim Hardin. I can't imagine anyone hearing him and not feeling the same," said Mark Lanegan, who recorded "Red Balloon" for the tribute album.

Oregon troubadour Tim Hardin is one of the most influential singer-songwriters of all time. "My songs aren't personal," Hardin insisted before his death in 1980. "They sound it 'cos it was me who revealed them, but it was my head that got the lightning shot through it.” For some of his fans, his bewitching folk music has the same knockout power as a lightning strike from the sky; instantaneous, bruising, beautiful, and electrifying.

Hardin was a musician's musician, the inspiration behind many artists whose limelight he never procured for himself. Johnny Cash, Paul Weller, Rod Stewart, Echo and the Bunnymen, Scott Walker and Nico all recorded covers of Hardin's songs. That tradition is set to continue with the release of 'Reason To Believe', a tribute album collecting cover versions from the likes of Screaming Trees legend Mark Lanegan, Hannah Peel, Okkervil River and more.

Patti Smith expressed her admiration for Tim Hardin’s music in her memoir 'Just Kids' when she said, "My brother gave us a new needle for our record player... we happily listened to Tim Hardin, his songs becoming our songs, the expression of our young love."

“So many people's entry point to Tim has been through cover versions,” says Full Time Hobby co-owner Nigel Adams, the label responsible for the release. “It felt fitting to bring his songs up to date with contemporary artists approaching his music with the hope listeners would then go beyond the well known and dig into some of the wealth of songs he wrote and recorded”.

The album comes as a sequel to the Full Time Hobby 2006 release, 'Dream Brother: The Songs of Tim and Jeff Buckley.' It is the next in a series that puts the spotlight on artists whose impact was more profound than their fame, whose names may have drifted into obscurity but whose memory continues to burn brightly in the hearts and record collections of music lovers.

'Reason To Believe' is a great opportunity for modern artists to get creative with Tim Hardin's songs. The record begins with Wellington cinematic-pop types The Phoenix Foundation and their reworking of “Don't Make Promises You Can't Keep”, the strummed guitar of Hardin's original replaced by a wash of pianos and airy vocals. From there, Sam Genders’ Diagrams turn “Part Of The Wind” into an electronics epic guided by 16-bit bleeps and ghostly synths, while Smoke Fairies offer a broody, intense take on “If I Were A Carpenter."

With artwork by Jack White's former collaborator Miles Johnson at Third Man Records and extensive liner notes by Rock’s Backpages music critic Barney Hoskyns, 'Reason To Believe' is worth a listen.

'Reason To Believe – The Songs Of Tim Hardin' track listing:

1. The Phoenix Foundation - Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep
2. The Sand Band - Reason To Believe
3. Mark Lanegan - Red Balloon
4. Diagrams - Part Of The Wind
5. The Magnetic North - It’s Hard To Believe In Love For Long
6. Alela Diane - How Can We Hang On To A Dream
7. Snorri Helgason - Misty Roses
8. Sarabeth Tucek - If I Knew
9. Okkervil River - It’ll Never Happen Again
10. Smoke Fairies - If I Were A Carpenter
11. Gavin Clark - Shiloh Town
12. Hannah Peel - Lenny’s Tune
13. Pinkunoizu - I Can’t Slow Down