HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER - Haw

Kategorie: CD-Reviews | Genre: Country, Alternative/Indie | Heft: Jahrgang 2013, eclipsed Nr. 153 / 9-2013 | VÖ-Jahr: 2013 | Wertung: | Label: Light In The Attic | Autor:


"Haw" is the name of a river that flows through North Carolina. At the same time it denotes a part of the Sioux tribe that once pitched its tents there. M. C. Taylor takes the landscape around the Haw, where he lived with his family for a long time, as a background for a concept album about this area. In fact, "Haw" is a flawless alternative country album, with an emphasis on country. Because many songs are arranged quite conventionally, so that they rather remind of Nashville legends like Willie Nelson or Waylon Jennings than of the following indie generation around Wilco or Ryan Adams. Nevertheless, HGM is miles away from the commercial backwoods sound, but plays solid, acoustically instrumented music that really grabs you when melancholy dominates ("devotion"). But many pieces have to be approached first, whereby it helps to have a picture of the larger whole in one's head: The landscape, its people, their family and friendly ties. Only then does the album unfold its true power and let the listener sink into the vastness of America.

Top Track: Devotion

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