By now front man and principal songwriter for Hiss Golden Messenger, M.C. Taylor, is no longer just a cultish fan favorite. He writes for his band and for other singer-songwriters to the extent that he is now considered one of the best in the giant big tent called ‘Americana.’ When one reaches Grammy status as Hiss Golden Messenger did with their 2019 Terms of Surrender receiving a 2021 nomination, the masses take increased notice. Acclaim has been building for some time now. We learned of this release practically three months ago and the anticipation is ridiculous. The first single “Sanctuary” spent eight weeks at number one on the Americana Singles Chart and the album was high up on the album chart weeks ahead of release.
M.C Taylor, who wrote or co-wrote all the songs, initially recorded them on multiple instruments by himself before sharing them with his band and special guests that include Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Zach Williams of The Lone Bellow, Nashville go-to guitarist Buddy Miller, and today’s omnipresent producer and musician Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman. While mainstays multi-instrumentalist Scott Hirsch and drummer Matt McCaughan return, we no longer see Phil and Brand Cook in the credits. Filling their void in part, and the album is very keyboard focused, is Devonte Harris of the funk/jazz unit Butcher Brown.
The forced solitude of the pandemic gave Taylor more than enough time to write and he dug deep into the themes of these times beginning with “Way Back in the Way Back” with its indelible chorus line “Up with the mountains, down with the system.” Most, like that one, are of the pensive variety except for the rollicking “The Great Mystifier” which carries a southern rock vibe and “Mighty Dollar” which is delivered with funky angst across swirling B3 organ, clavinet, and several background vocalists. There’s plenty of R&B influences along the way, as when he sings falsetto in the chorus- filled “It Will If We Let It” to the Buddy Miller guitar augmented ballad title track, full of thoughts that many of us have of the many missteps we’ve made, but rarely captured so well in song. Apparently, the inspiration for the album can be found in Taylor’s thoughtful essay, “Mourning in America” but the music stems from the southern pillars of blues, jazz, and gospel.
The single “If It Comes in the Morning” has an accompanying video and was written during the frightening early period of the pandemic as if searching for the tiniest shreds of hope – “If you need it, you can take it/Recall how it feels/Now brother, don’t break it/Count up our losses/lay a rose at the crosses/And hope hope is contagious.” He turned to inspiration from The Staples Singers and Curtis Mayfield, and when stuck for lyrics, Anais Mitchell. “Hardlytown,” another single, has a Dylan influence as Taylor sings in the vein of “The Times They Are A Changin”” about a harbinger of different times on the way – “So forward, children/Never back down/What used to hurt you/Can’t hurt you now/The world feels broken/I ain’t joking, babe/Never back down.”
”Glory Strums (The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner),” with its steady organ-fueled beat, captures those many self-reflective moments we all have had in the past 18 months. “Painting Houses,” co-written with Gregory Alan Isakov) is more of a dreamy lament while “Angels in the Headlights” serves as an instrumental interlude leading to the closing “Sanctuary,” about trying to reconcile tragedy and joy. The piano driven tune carries some of the most animated licks and grooves on the album. Aside from the references to John Prine {“Handsome Johnny had to go, child…”), Taylor is urging us on to move on, that hope is just around the corner – as if the overriding theme of the album is all found conveniently in this one song, a great song at that.
Seven albums in, Hiss Golden Messenger just keeps getting better with Taylor expressing personal thoughts that resonate with most of us. They have arrived now as one of America’s most important bands.
