Today, M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger is sharing “Watching the Wires” and “Everybody Needs Somebody,” his first new music of 2019. Both songs were recorded in Durham, NC and feature Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso and Mountain Man on backing vocals.

M.C. Taylor on the two new stand-alone singles:

I wrote “Watching the Wires” and “Everybody Needs Somebody” in the basement of a house just outside of Portland, Maine, last summer. 2018 was a hard year—for myself and, as it turns out, most people that I know—and I was thinking a lot at that time about how to cope with what felt like an unnameable existential crisis: Run for the hills, or hug the nearest stranger? As it turns out, I’ve been doing a bit of both. Singing these songs has been helpful to me.

“Watching the Wires” and “Everybody Needs Somebody” follow in the Hiss Golden Messenger tradition of releasing “loner” songs between full-length albums (see: 2014’s “Brother, Do You Know the Road?”, 2015’s Southern Grammar EP, 2017’s “Standing in the Doorway”, 2018’s “Passing Clouds”). 

The first leg of Hiss Golden Messenger’s solo tour included an appearance at Pitchfork’s Midwinter; the second leg begins Friday in upstate New York. Find a full list of tour dates below and get tickets to the show nearest you today!

Hiss Golden Messenger on tour:
Mar 01 Woodstock, NY – Levon Helm Studios*
Mar 02 Westerly, RI – Knickerbocker Music Center*
Mar 03 Holyoke, MA – Gateway City Arts*
Mar 05 Portsmouth, NH – 3S Artspace*
Mar 06 Burlington, VT – ArtsRiot*
Mar 07 Manchester Center, VT – Billsville House Concert*
Mar 08 Harrisonburg, VA – Clementine Cafe*
Mar 09 Norfolk, VA – ODU Goode Theater*
Mar 16 Thomasville, GA – Oakfest
Jun 06–08 Wellston, MI – Camp Greensky Music Festival
Jul 24 Durham, NC – Carolina Theatre (MRG30 Festival)
Aug 21 Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre^
Aug 22 Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre^
* solo performance
^ w/ Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats