Marshall Crenshaw Shares 'Walkin' Around' Demo 'From The Hellhole'

08-26-2025

(Yep Roc) Acclaimed singer/songwriter and record-maker Marshall Crenshaw shares "Walkin' Around," a previously unreleased demo recording featured on From The Hellhole out Friday, August 29 on Yep Roc Records. Curated by Crenshaw, the 14-track remixed and remastered collection features rare deep cuts and a series of songs from previously released limited edition EPs released between 2012-16.

Of "Walkin' Around" Crenshaw offers, "My home recording of a song that wound up on my 5th album ("Life"s Too Short"). I like it better than the album track, even though it was recorded on a crappy tape machine. This recording has never been released. A few years ago, a person that I've known and liked for a long time reached out to tell me how this song had been a favorite of his since 1991, and he asked if I had a demo of it, or any alternate version of it, that I'd be willing to send to him. I was happy that he asked, and was really happy to discover that the demo is GREAT. There are maybe a couple of notes in it that I'd fix, but it really has that spirit and that immediacy that happens when you record a brand new song that you're excited about. Hearing it made me wish that I'd had professional quality recording equipment of my own back then- that way the "demo" could've been the record. (By the time I did the album version, the song was maybe a year old.) Ever since then I've been waiting for a chance to release this track, and here it is."

Produced by Crenshaw, From The Hellhole was primarily recorded in his home studio, affectionately dubbed "The Hellhole," and mostly spans the last two decades (plus one song from 1990) resurrecting eleven of the eighteen tracks originally issued on the EPs, all of which have been out of print since 2017. With rights now reverted to Crenshaw, these recordings have been compiled here in the interest of what he describes as "legacy curation"-a personal mission to properly archive and reissue work that continues to resonate. Of the eleven EP tracks, eight have been remixed. "They're their possible best selves now," says Crenshaw.

From The Hellhole includes "Grab The Next Train" and "Move Now," as well as several highly personal renditions of songs by various artists such as The Bobby Fuller Four, Rare Earth, Karen and Richard Carpenter, and Todd Rundgren. Crenshaw explains, "People over the years have suggested to me, 'Hey, you oughta do a covers album'- I went halfway there with this one, and had a lot of fun doing it."

In support of the album, Crenshaw will hit the road on a fall tour with stops throughout the Midwest, Southeast, and East Coast.