From folklorist field recordings to whisper-quiet folk, the man behind Hiss Golden Messenger is anything but conventional
MC.. Taylor, the man behind the indie-folk project Hiss Golden Messenger, is well acquainted with folk tradition. A professional folklorist by trade, Taylor has traveled throughout Eastern North Carolina documenting traditional music. But he says that defining the term in the 21st century can be tricky.
“When Alan Lomax was talking about recording traditional music, he was talking about people who had developed regional styles of music that were unaffected by mass media,” Taylor says. “Now, at a time when everybody can hear and see everything, traditional music takes on a different meaning.”
Taylor and his colleagues had many discussions about who was fit to be recorded as a traditional artist and who wasn’t. These conversations always made Taylor uncomfortable. The way he sees it, if someone says they play traditional music then they play traditional music.
“It has a lot to do with how they learned it, and where they learned it from,” he says. “It has a lot to do with the spirit of the performance and the emotional relationship of the person to the song.”
Creating an emotional relationship to the music is an essential element of Taylor’s own songwriting. As Hiss Golden Messenger, Taylor, who also fronted the San Francisco indie-rock band the Court & Spark, uses songs to explore topics that weigh heavy on his mind. Repeating themes in his music include God, salvation and spirituality, and he draws heavily from biblical language. His songs are full of religious imagery and talk of holy days, chapter and verse, omens, fools, crowns, good news and doves.
When asked what draws him to biblical and spiritual themes, Taylor says he’s amazed people don’t think about religion and spirituality more.
“I feel like questions don’t get asked nearly enough,” he says, explaining that he spends a lot of time thinking about the place of spirituality in our lives. “I’m just compelled to write on the subject. When I feel like I’ve run out of thoughts on it, I’ll probably direct my thoughts in another direction.”
Despite the biblical leanings, Taylor is not a zealot or a saint. Alongside songs about God and salvation are songs about drinking whiskey and burying his sword. Now six albums and two EPs into Hiss Golden Messenger, Taylor also covers a lot of ground around love, joy, troubles and gratitude.
The 2010 album, Bad Debt, brought Hiss Golden Messenger attention and acclaim for its intimacy and honesty. Recorded at his kitchen table while his then-infant son slept, the album feels like you’re being let in on a secret. It is whisper-quiet at points, challenging listeners to slow down and pay attention. It also, like all of Taylor’s music, leaves plenty of room for personal interpretation.
“I’m usually looking to put words to paper that have an emotional resonance for me,” he says. “Something that I can sing every night if I need to, and continue to develop my relationship to, and still have them be words that echo in people’s heads when the show—or the record—is over.”
Taylor’s latest offering, Lateness of Dancers, is his closest yet to a mainstream album—a rich, lovely record with a more produced, studio sound than past offerings. When asked about it, Taylor explains that it’s not a studio album at all.
“I think it’s funny when people talk about how it’s more polished,” he says. “That record was actually made in a barn that belongs to a friend of ours. We brought in our own mobile recording rig and [recorded the album] quite quickly.”
Recording in a barn proved to be a perfect setting for the folklorist turned professional musician, furthering a musical shift he made when he and his family moved from San Francisco to North Carolina. It was then that he connected with his music in new ways and began making music for himself, no longer afraid to sing about things that were very personal.
“I was interacting with music in the same way I saw a lot of people I was interviewing interacting with music,” he says. “Doing folklore work reminded me that music is at its best when you’re having a very personal relationship with it.”
Hiss Golden Messenger will perform at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 22 at the Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $25. 423-1338. PHOTO: When he’s not recording as Hiss Golden Messenger, professional folklorist M.C. Taylor travels through the U.S. finding traditional music to record.
