Hal Paris – Until Loving Finds Me 
The second half of 2025 is stacking up the essential reissues, so don’t get wrapped up in trying to tie a bow on the year just yet. RSTB faves Torn & Frayed stray back into the release game with their second official offering after a run of excellent Japanese Folk mixtapes and a covers comp that saw more than a few of Cosmic Country’s best tackle a collection of classics. This time, the sights are set on a proper issue of demo material from Country Funk songwriter Hal Paris. The band is the kind that shows up in lists of overlooked ‘70s gems, issuing a sole LP in 1970 that’s practically a blueprint for current favorites like Rose City Band, Keven Louis Lareau, and The Bures Band. Following the band’s unfortunate dissolution after their record received a tepid response, Paris began a process of wandering. The band had packed up from Los Angeles, where their sound made a bit more sense, to Boston, only to get tied up in a scene that didn’t quite fit their lived-in, dust-covered denim dreams.
Picking up in the band’s wake on the East Coast, Paris began working on new songs apart from the comforts of the group, giving this batch of songs a distinct loneliness that echoes classic traces of Townes and Blaze, but still swerves towards a Canyon-cradled sound. Eventually Paris would make his way partially back West, landing in Boulder, but still yearning for the kinds of connections that came with touring, former friends and bandmates, and the sun of California. The songs may be demos, but they hold the flame that ran through Paris’ work with Country Funk. Given some fleshing out, one could easily hear these as the kind that crop up on Numero Comps or in the background of soft-boiled detective films, echoing the protagonists’ solitary stumble towards justice. A welcome batch of originals sprinkled in with a Joni cover and a Robert Frost interpretation, this is the kind of archival dig that’s getting fewer and further between as the reissues circuit begins to recycle itself in search of true lost classics. Keep the year end out of your eyes until this one hits your headphones.
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