It was a dark and stormy night (mostly a day that rather looked like night) in January last year when songwriter M.C. Taylor penned the music that would become Hiss Golden Messenger‘s Heart Like A Levee. Taylor was stuck in a hotel room in Washington, D.C. as a powerful storm ravaged the East Coast and darkened the skies. But the storm seemed to awaken a reexamination of the paths that led him to his life. These songs from the heart emerged from struggles with music-making, life on the road, and caring for his family.
The album is about love – both its uplifting and destructive sides – and the incredible feeling of one’s soul being genuinely moved. “Heart Like A Levee is my taking stock of my universe, my span, my inventory, my leave-taking and return over back roads so blue they look black until the dawn,” Taylor said.
Hiss Golden Messenger’s tour in support of the new album includes a stop in Austin tonight for a show at the Parish, 214 E. 6th St. Fellow North Carolina artist Phil Cook kicks off the show. Doors open early at 7 p.m.
-Photography by Andy Tennille.
