![]() There was a house through the trees I hadn’t seen before. Turns out, there were kids through the trees. I stood there just listening to these kids play, and instead of being terrified, I just enjoyed being in this in between place where I didn’t know if I was having a hallucination or not. I was watching the sunset and then I heard the voices of children playing and I thought the mushrooms were hitting me because the place was absolutely deserted. It was really cold and absolutely gorgeous and I felt thankful to be there. ![]() I ate a little bit and walked to this deserted hillside. I brought some guitars, recording equipment, and mushrooms with me. So I checked around looking for a place I could take some instruments and go write for a few days and I happened upon this cottage in the foothills of Virginia and the people that owned that land were kind enough to let me come up. Last year was a tricky year for many of us. He told us about writing the album last year. He said he could remember the conception of all of the songs. MC said his new album Terms of Surrender is full of songs that started out in the same way with just him and his guitar in a room. I appreciate that the songs meant so much to my fellow concert goers, though I don’t think I’m a convert. It was crystal clear that other folks in the audience adored MC and these songs. I would have needed to read his songbook in advance to get the full force of what MC was trying to express. I felt like not knowing the lyrics in advance was a disadvantage. HGM songs are complex, wordy poems accompanied by guitar. ![]() He joked that he knew we’d be a discerning crowd, so he had to put a little work in–“it’s just a lot of words, you know?” And he was spot on. MC told us that he married a Mainer and plays these shows annually when they’re here to visit family. I always prefer a solo performer and a guitar, and apparently that’s not the norm for HGM shows, so I was lucky to see MC Taylor up close and stripped down to a man, a guitar, and his songs. I nabbed a second row center seat, chatted with my neighbor about the Newport Folk Festival, and got ready to see what’s so great about HGM. ![]() There were a lot of dudes in the audience. Without knowing any of his music, I decided to head to One Longfellow Square in Portland on a summer Saturday night to check him out for myself. Actually, a lot of guys who love music in my life love Hiss Golden Messenger, too. “I might go a little crazy,” croons Taylor, just before Hiss Golden Messenger boogies off into the sunset.My friend Kenny T is a diehard Hiss Golden Messenger fan. On “Saturday’s Song,” the band shows off its two sides: it’s both a Saturday-night and a Sunday-morning kind of group. John, Waylon Jennings–into a cohesive sound that could choogle as well as tug at your emotions.Īfter years of toiling in obscurity, Hiss Golden Messenger makes its Merge Records debut with Lateness Of Dancers, out September 9. ![]() Last year’s Haw combined the band’s influences–JJ Cale, Dr. Befitting his use of allegory in his lyrics, Taylor performs like a preacher, slipping and sliding all around the beat. Together with his partner-in-crime, Scott Hirsch, Taylor has turned Hiss Golden Messenger into a unique roots-rock band, one that taps into Southern ghosts with songs that are content to ramble at their own pace. The fact that most of the original copies of this debut burned up in the London riots of 2011 only added to its mysterious nature.īut Taylor hasn’t let these kinds of legends cloud his career. The backdrop was a harsh winter and the world’s financial collapse, making his songs about spiritual redemption all the more resonant. Under the moniker Hiss Golden Messenger, he recorded his debut, Bad Debt, deep in the North Carolina woods with only his newborn son as company. Taylor’s backstory is so rife with metaphor it would make any writer blush. ![]()
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