Earthwords & Music by John Hartford

Earthwords & Music, John Hartford's second LP, came out on RCA Victor in 1967 with Felton Jarvis producing, and it's the record that carries the song that would define him. "Gentle on My Mind" is here, a rambling, easygoing folk tune that went on to win three Grammys and land on BMI's list of the top 100 songs of the century.

Hartford was a banjo and fiddle man with a sly, wordy wit and a peculiar voice all his own, and the album is folk with a wink in its eye, rooted in tradition but never stiff about it. Like the rest of his RCA work, it was paired with his debut, Looks at Life, on a two-for-one CD reissue in 2002.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.