Hiss Golden Messenger (Photo by Elise Tyler)
MC Taylor and Hiss Golden Messenger return to DC for a performance at 9:30 Club on Thursday, Dec. 20, bringing along with them a deluxe box set, Devotion: Songs About Rivers and Spirits and Children.
The box set contains remastered editions of classic Hiss albums Bad Debt, Poor Moon, and Haw as well as Virgo Fool, a rarities compilation. The three studio albums — the second, third, and fifth respectively by Hiss Golden Messenger — capture the stripped down sound of a band truly finding its voice.
Listen to “Rock Holy,” a rare track on Virgo Fool, by Hiss Golden Messenger on YouTube:
In a review for Line of Best Fit, Janne Oinonen admires the “luxurious” content of Devotion: Songs About Rivers and Spirits and Children.
“Clearly relishing the chance to bring his newly discovered songwriting prowess to full fruition with a band, the reference points take in murky, JJ Cale — and The Band-esque country-funk, soul-hued balladry, vintage singer-songwriterly introspection, American folk and roots music, classic ’70s FM rock, gospel, and dub. Sometimes all at the same time: witness how the bruised and battered groove of ‘Jesus Shot Me in the Head’ — a majestic account of a dedicated waster’s salvation and/or doom following celestial visions — dissolves into what sounds like a ghostly Appalachian string band raising from the swamp mist,” Janne wrote.
Hiss Golden Messenger
9:30 Club
Thursday, Dec. 20
Doors @ 7pm
$20
All ages