Tim Hardin starb am 29. 12. 1980 mit 39 Jahren, elf Monate nach diesem letzten Konzert. "Reason To Believe", "If I Were A Carpenter" und zehn weitere poetische Balladen singt er solo zu akustischer Gitarre - mit war- mem, brüchigem Timbre, bluesgetränkt. "Misty Roses" ist eins der schönsten Liebeslieder überhaupt.

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Er war ein früher Weggefährte von Bob Dylan, schrieb Welterfolge wie "Hang On To A Dream" und "If I Were A Carpenter" und machte alle Höhen und Tiefen einer Außenseiterexistenz als Musiker durch. Kurz bevor der kränkelnde und vereinsamte Tim Hardin 39jährig starb, gab er auf Initia- tive eines Freundes ein "Homecoming Concert" in seiner Heimatstadt im US- Bundesstaat Oregon. Alle großen Hardin-Songs sind auf diesem einmaligen Tondokument zu hören, in Folkblues-Interpretationen, die Hardins wider- borstigem Charakter in optimaler Weise entsprechen: ohne Zweifel ein Juwel im CD-Katalog von Uwe Tessnows Line-Label. LP-Kritik: Die Rarität 1/82

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This 1980 concert would be Hardin's last, as the singer, continually beset by drug and alcohol problems, died in December of that year. The site of the performance was Hardin's hometown of Eugene, OR, to which he had returned to participate in a TV documentary about his career. From the photo on the front, it appears that time had taken its toll on Hardin, who'd been living in intentional obscurity in England for several years. Amazingly, his voice sounds clearer and purer than it did on his earliest albums. Before an appreciative hometown crowd, Hardin performs solo, delivering powerful, affecting versions of songs from his first couple of recordings. In retrospect, his eulogistic "Tribute to Hank Williams" is eerily prophetic. The sadness in Hardin's voice on the piano ballad "Hang on to a Dream" is particularly poignant, but the entire disc is eminently rewarding. It shows that Hardin, who was at work on a new album at the time of his death, was the owner of a musical fire that was still burning brightly at that late date.