Caught in warm showers of light, Hiss Golden Messenger is both rootsy and rocking. In the ornate Thalia Hall, craft beer, popcorn, and cowboy hats were everywhere. To see a Hiss Golden Messenger concert is to transport yourself for a few hours to a warm summer night in the park, watching the stars twinkle above as Taylor recalls his childhood. The band’s energy remains joyful, hopeful, and optimistic. Still, stagnation is not all bad if you’re stuck somewhere pretty good. However, his lyrics are at their best when they are questioning and bittersweet the songs in Quietly Blowing It are too uplifting and positive. Taylor’s politics continue to shine through: The songs raise awareness of income inequality and support public educators, in particular. Since 2013, Hiss Golden Messenger has released a whopping nine full-length albums, the most recent-the 2021 album Quietly Blowing It-feels more populist than powerful. The problem for Hiss Golden Messenger is that the band’s off-kilter tonal qualities, outdoorsy sounds, and uplifting political messages-which drove its initial popularity-now feel repetitive rather than innovative. In many ways, the concert felt like a long, intimate demonstration of Taylor’s skill as a musician, punctuated on occasion by blaring rock solos and the band’s most popular songs. The entire band is talented, but Taylor’s vocals and guitar solos are especially strong. Taylor’s voice is at once soothing and on-edge, and his sense of vocal emphasis is highly engaging. Their music-at times haunting, at times hallowed-is constantly inviting and sometimes thrilling. Taylor has become something of a musician’s musician, trying to lay a path for roots rockers back to Americans’ hearts decades after the roots-rock boom faded. Their 2019 album Terms of Surrender was Grammy-nominated for Best Americana Album. Taylor, whose folksy style of roots rock has brought the band from their humble origins in Durham, North Carolina, to national prominence. Hiss Golden Messenger is unquestionably centered on lead singer M. Fans occasionally sang along, but mostly seemed caught in awe. But mostly, they just got louder and more energetic, and the crowd with them. As their set progressed, the band grew louder, and their long mid-song solos became more technical and diverse. The crowd bounced lightly, shaking along with the music. Band members danced across the stage, kicking, bending, and conversing. Hiss Golden Messenger, by contrast, burst at the seams with energy. “Most of my songs are kinda sad,” she said at one point in the night, “but my life is pretty good.” She sang about wild peppermint, snow days, and staying up late at night eating cereal. With a soft-spoken, swooning voice conveying sadness and a little shyness, Rose twirled ballads of Appalachian life. From small-town western Virginia, Rose is a little-known but up-and-coming Americana singer. And I got the time required in order to do that.In March at Thalia Hall, Alexa Rose opened for Hiss Golden Messenger. “Maybe I had the presence of mind when I was writing Quietly Blowing It to know that this was the time to go as deep as I needed to in order to make a record like this. “It’s not exactly a record about the state of the world-or my world -in 2020, but more a retrospective of the past five years of my life, painted in a sort of impressionistic hues,” Taylor continues. The accompanying music video was directed by KidEthnic. Special guests and contributors on Quietly Blowing It include Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Tony Award-winning artist Anaïs Mitchell, Zach Williams of The Lone Bellow, Nashville guitar great Buddy Miller, and producer/musician Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman. The forthcoming record follows Terms of Surrender (2019) was Grammy Award-nominated for Best Americana Album. ‘Born on the level, quietly blowing it.’ That’s what’s on my mind there. “When I think of the phrase ‘quietly blowing it,’ I think of all the ways that I’ve misstepped, misused my gifts, miscommunicated. “These songs always circle back to the things that I feel like I have a handle on and the things that I’m not proud of about myself,” says Taylor. Though some days the world was burning outside his window, Taylor “went looking for peace.” The songs from Quietly Blowing It are often introspective vignettes that just so happen to timestamp a pivotal moment in living history. Penned in the refuge of Taylor’s home studio, the lyrical content has grown increasingly resonant within the current context of normalized turbulence.
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