“I’m not putting this record out under any sort of duress,” he continues. During the making of Terms of Surrender, he started seeing a therapist for the first sustained period of time in his life, and it’s helped him “understand that it’s OK to have these feelings of anxiety, and that there are ways to let them pass through you and not destroy you.” Taylor has made several personal strides since the period chronicled on Terms of Surrender. “Mama, I’m standing on the ledge-i-o,” he mumbles, as if to obscure what he’s saying, on “Down at the Uptown.” “Run, jump or fly? I think I caught a bad one.” Typically, after Taylor writes an album, he goes back and tweaks his lyrics “ever so slightly, to make it something that I’m going to be able to sing every night.” Terms of Surrender did not go through such a process. Terms of Surrender, Hiss Golden Messenger’s latest collection, documents - in sometimes frighteningly honest specifics - the crushing lows and precious saving graces of this turbulent time. And he continued to struggle with what he calls the “spiritually complicated” parts of being a touring musician, the parts that involve spending a healthy chunk of the year away from his wife and children. The meds Taylor had been taking for his depression, which had gotten worse in recent years, were simply not working. He went through a “pretty huge interpersonal drama” with a close friend (chronicled, in part, on his new song “Katy (You Don’t Have to Be Good Yet”)). As Phil Cook, who’s become Taylor’s right-hand multi-instrumentalist (Cook’s words: “a sous chef in the kitchen of Mike Taylor”), puts it: “Mike has got a prolific bone to pick with the universe.”īut after several years of incessant gigging, recording, and writing, Taylor’s life ground to a halt in 2018. Taylor has grown his following, in part, by churning out an unusually large quantity of music, releasing nearly an album per year during the past decade. Perhaps not coincidentally, Hiss Golden Messenger have became a favorite among fellow musicians, adored by everyone from Mumford and Sons and the Hold Steady to Jenny Lewis and the National’s Aaron Dessner, the latter two of whom appear on Taylor’s new record. Taylor’s music turns the most banal of musician woes - the tribulations of life on the road, spending extended periods of time away from family- into gorgeous meditations on love and lack. Since 2008, when Taylor self-released a collection of off-kilter folk tunes called Country Hai East Cotton, the Durham, North Carolina–based Hiss Golden Messenger has evolved into one of the most vital roots-music projects of the past decade - part solitary singer-songwriter outlet, part communal roots-rock collective. But, you know, if I die somewhere out there on the road, what do I want my last sung words to be? That was definitely something that was on my mind.” “These tunes are, in part, imagined conversations that I am having with the people that are close to me, as something to leave behind, almost a last-testament type thing. Visit for more information about tickets, upcoming events, and parking.“I had this feeling that I could not shake that maybe I’m not going to be around for much longer, that maybe something’s going to happen to me,” Taylor says. $1 from every ticket goes to support the Durham, NC Public Schools Foundation whose mission is to foster community support for public schools and invest in our students, educators, and families to ensure success and equity for every student. A limited number of front row seats are available. Tickets are $30 in advance online and $35 on the day of the show. The steady, churning acoustic guitar and mandolin, the steel guitar tracings, the bobbing and weaving organ, and a trusted cast of talented collaborators conspire to make “Quietly Blowing It” his most audacious and hopeful work yet.Ĭoncessions, including beer and wine will be available at the show. “I went looking for peace,” said Taylor, evidenced by his existential ruminations about parenthood, joy, hope, and loneliness.Taylor’s music is at once familiar, yet impossible to categorize. Throughout the album Taylor brings his keen eye to our “broken American moment” as he did on Hiss Golden Messenger’s critically acclaimed, GRAMMY® -nominated album “Terms of Surrender.” Taylor incorporates elements from the American songbook into his latest album “Quietly Blowing It” on Merge Records. The North Carolina songwriter is returning to the Waldo after last year’s sold-out show. Taylor for an intimate solo performance July 21 at 7:30 p.m. WALDOBORO – The Waldo Theatre is excited to welcome back Hiss Golden Messenger’s M.C.
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