Happy Thanksgiving! The Bachelors would like to share some holiday cheer with Hiss Golden Messenger fans.
First, please consider taking a few minutes to read this righteous, and heavy duty, profile of Hiss Golden Messenger in the Independent Weekly, which plumbs the spiritual and paternal perspectives articulated in Poor Moon and spares some kind words for yours truly at PoB as well. Jordan Lawrence, the author of said essay, has also written a rave review for the Indy, asserting that “Hiss Golden Messenger’s lush and intelligent Poor Moon is a masterpiece that new and old music lovers can agree on,” featuring “brilliant” and “incredibly focussed” songs “reckoning with religion in the perilous middle ground between atheist and believer.” He also gives a nod to the “immaculate packaging.” Thanks!
Our friends at the highly recommended online journal Art of the Rural likewise dig deep in their perceptive portrait of M.C. Taylor, teasing out in particular Poor Moon‘s lyrical links to Yeats and early twentieth-century notions of pastoralism and workaday poetics. It’s rare to read such insightful, long-form coverage of contemporary recordings, and we’re honored to pass on these press blessings.
If you haven’t yet secured your copy of this highly limited edition release you can purchase the LP here.
Here’s a seasonally appropriate clip of Hiss Golden Messenger and William Tyler performing Mike and Lal Waterson’s “Bright Phoebus” at a gig supporting the legendary Martin Carthy in Preston, Lancashire.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fST8fhFnAwg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL]
Expect more such magic when William plays with HGM at the Poor Moon Release Party on December 10th at Nightlight in Chapel Hill. Please join us at that event if you’re within reach/roads. (If you haven’t yet heard, local progressive jug band the BJ Creepers–Blood Jar or Bug Jar, take your pick–have recently signed on to support David Strader’s oracular yarns, and Nathan Bowles of the Black Twig Pickers will sit in with HGM too.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77RJ1pPURFM]
We were delighted to discover the Songs from the Shed project; HGM recorded a session in Somerset during his recent autumn tour of the UK. Here are the fruits of that woodshedding.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-9QYRSF9Zo]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNNNPGCAT_Y]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVwgx4nwZnU]
Speaking of Albion, HGM devotees in the UK and Europe can now buy Poor Moon directly from Norman Records in Leeds. Their sly review name checks Tom Petty, David Bowie, and Dire Straits. Not bad.
Finally, during your indulgences this holiday weekend, please keep in mind the salient message of this fine title track–and the astounding cover art–to the George Hatcher Band’s 1977 album Talkin’ Turkey. Hatcher, like Said I Had a Vision impresario David Lee, hails from Cleveland County, North Carolina.
That’s all, y’all. Like Charlie Mingus so memorably sang, it’s time to eat that chicken! Or turkey, or other delicious Bird of Courage.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAU6OQNIB1A]