HOFFSTACK PLAYLIST #17 - Hiss Golden Messenger, "Biloxi"

I love songs about places I've never been.

Someday someone will tell me why I tend to love bands with annoying names. “His Golden Messenger” is not a terrible thing to call your group, but “Hiss Golden Messenger” is.

When they first came on my radar I intentionally ignored them because of that second “s,” which I soon realized was absolutely ridiculous. Hiss Golden Messenger is one of the finest “Americana” groups I’ve ever heard — up there, for me, with Son Volt or The Jayhawks or dare I say Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Hiss Golden Messenger is the vehicle for mostly one dude, M.C. Taylor, proudly based from Durham, North Carolina. Apart from having a terrific voice what is special to me, and it is evident in the song “Biloxi” linked above, is how even at mid-tempo there is a busyness to the vocal melodic line. When you get to know these songs, which are oftentimes uncanny earworms, it is very difficult not to sing along.

“Biloxi” is a pretty short song — just a taste and leave ‘em wanting more! — but it is wholly indicative of what H.G.M. is all about. Though I have yet to see them perform (Taylor is coming to Montclair, N.J. with just himself and a guitar in October) the live shows tend to stretch out a little, and there are trace elements of “the jam band” ethos to be found.

Sometimes it is evident. Streamable concerts feature covers of the Grateful Dead’s “Bird Song,” “Mama Tried,” a Merle Haggard tune that Bob Weir selected as a jam standard, and H.G.M.’s benefit show for Durham public schools (streamable as Forward, Children) opens with a song called “Call Him Daylight” that features a spacey, driving beat and room in the guitar solo to tease the riff to “Shakedown Street.” Later in the set the song “As the Crow Flies” transforms into Little Feat’s “Dixie Chicken” for a minute or two. It’s great.

Even H.G.M.’s ballads have that driving beat you hear in “Biloxi.” There’s also the lyrics, steeped in Southern lore and, frequently, Christian imagery. In interviews, Taylor regularly states that he is not a Christian. Whether he is or not wouldn’t normally matter to me as far as his music is concerned, but the fact that he is not a Christian but appears to be one in his songs is weirdly fascinating.

Here’s a live version of “Biloxi.”