Album Review: Hiss Golden Messenger Quietly Blowing It

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With a Grammy nomination in his back pocket, M.C. Taylor (aka Hiss Golden Messenger) is on a roll and Quietly Blowing It looks to be one of the year’s finest Americana records.

Maybe Americana is the wrong term…let’s try “post-COVID” because, let’s face it, we are about to be deluged with a great many records that deal with the loss, the isolation and the anger that many folks around the world have gone through this past year.

And if post-COVID means making music like Quietly Blowing It, well, that may not be such a bad thing.

M.C. Taylor has been quietly plying his trade as Hiss Golden Messenger since 2007 from his home in Durham, North Carolina. That scene is home to American Aquarium, The Mountain Goats, Sylvan Esso and Merge Records who have released this little beauty.

Despite being something of a solo project, Taylor has assembled a formidable cast around him including brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith of Dawes and ace guitarist Buddy Miller.

But this is an album about songwriting rather than flashy playing.

Opener Way Back In The Way Back sets the tone.

“Up with the mountains, down with the system,  that keeps us in chains, hearing our whispering”.

Yes, there is an undercurrent of a good old fashioned protest song among Taylor’s laid-back demeanor.

“Stood out in the rain, like some rock and roll scarecrow, both hands are broken, oh, the prophet has spoken”.

Like many of us, Taylor is disillusioned, depressed and downcast, but the is hope in songs like If It Comes In The Morning…”hope, hope is contagious, there’s a new day coming”.

But the new day comes at a cost. On the title track he notes, “The shape of things don’t look so good. On TV there’s a riot goin’ on”.

And on Hardlytown…Taylor says in the press release… Maybe the conversation that the mother and son have throughout ‘Hardlytown’ was my attempt to reckon with the tension that exists between selflessness and selfishness.” He adds, “We all know some version of this conversation. We’re currently in the middle of it as a country and as a species.

If it all sounds too heavy for you, don’t fret. The music is beautiful. I love the way the horns are used on Painting Houses and the harmonica on Glory Strums is heartbreaking.

So, yes, brace yourself for a flurry of post-COVID songs. Let’s hope they are all as good as this.

Marty Duda

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Marty Duda
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