![]() Together, we've pillaged damn near every used gospel bin in America and he's taught me everything important about that musical world. With those chords, I wrote “Saturday's Song,” “Biloxi,” “Caledonia,” “Jenny of the Roses,” and many others. Phil showed me the basic chord shapes for a guitar tuned to open D. Over the years I've been all over the world with him-from the dusty gypsy alleys of Lisbon to a dim closet-sized green room on an anonymous, snowy night in Bellingham, Washington-and he always talks about how glad he is to be wherever we are. Last summer, we were on a particularly turbulent flight from a gig we played with Bon Iver in Maryland to San Francisco, where we were due at a festival, and Phil held my hand and gave me murmurs of assurance until I calmed down. Before we take off, he always- always-switches seats with the stranger in the middle so he can be next to me. I sit in the window seat-I have a phobia of flying and sitting next to the window gives me some illusion of control-and Phil sits in the aisle. On planes, Phil and I always sit together. When Hiss is on the road-which is quite often-Phil and I share a hotel room. We were kindred spirits and we spoke the same language. They understood what I was trying to do with Hiss Golden Messenger. Phil-and his brother Brad, who produced People Are My Drugas well as the Hiss albums Heart Like a Leveeand Hallelujah Anyhow-were like that for me. ![]() Sometimes we meet people that we feel like we've known our whole lives. They became two of the most important people in my universe. After this first encounter, our orbits came into sync and I began to hang out with both of the Cook brothers regularly. They were there to say hello to our mutual friend William Tyler, who was playing in Hiss Golden Messenger that night. I had heard of Phil through his music in Megafaun, a band that he had with his brother Brad and their friend Joe Westerlund, but I had never met him until he and Brad came through the door of the club while we were soundchecking. I met Phil on Saturday, December 10th, 2011 I know this because it's the date that I played an album release show for Poor Moonat a club called The Nightlight in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “I might go a little crazy,” croons Taylor, just before Hiss Golden Messenger boogies off into the sunset.My friend Phil Cook's album People Are My Drugis out today, and I would like to take a moment to testify about him. On “Saturday’s Song,” the band shows off its two sides: it’s both a Saturday-night and a Sunday-morning kind of group. John, Waylon Jennings–into a cohesive sound that could choogle as well as tug at your emotions.Īfter years of toiling in obscurity, Hiss Golden Messenger makes its Merge Records debut with Lateness Of Dancers, out September 9. Last year’s Haw combined the band’s influences–JJ Cale, Dr. Befitting his use of allegory in his lyrics, Taylor performs like a preacher, slipping and sliding all around the beat. Together with his partner-in-crime, Scott Hirsch, Taylor has turned Hiss Golden Messenger into a unique roots-rock band, one that taps into Southern ghosts with songs that are content to ramble at their own pace. The fact that most of the original copies of this debut burned up in the London riots of 2011 only added to its mysterious nature.īut Taylor hasn’t let these kinds of legends cloud his career. The backdrop was a harsh winter and the world’s financial collapse, making his songs about spiritual redemption all the more resonant. Under the moniker Hiss Golden Messenger, he recorded his debut, Bad Debt, deep in the North Carolina woods with only his newborn son as company. Taylor’s backstory is so rife with metaphor it would make any writer blush.
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