Haw is the name of a river, a modest tributary of the Cape Fear, flowing rocky and swift
through 110 miles of Piedmont North Carolina, wending Southeasterly past abandoned and
repurposed textile mills, rickety hippie homesteads, and red-clay farmland fringed with pine
forests. Haw is also one of a few names for a small Siouan tribe that once resided in the
river’s valley and may have alternately known themselves as the Saxapahaw or
Sissipahaw.
M.C. Taylor, who wrote these songs, once lived hard by the Haw with his wife Abigail and
their son Elijah, but he doesn’t live there anymore. Having followed the slipstream to the
relative bustle of nearby Durham, North Carolina, he has composed a new clutch of tunes
that conjure the half-remembered dreams of peace promised by our pasts.
Taylor’s writing and singing here achieve a tenebrous clarity, invoking— and occasionally
challenging—a intermingling cast of prophetic characters both sacred and profane: Daniel,
Elijah, the Apostles, and the Son of Man, sure, but also the Peacock Fiddle Band,
Mississippi John Hurt, and by implication, Lew Welch, Waylon Jennings, Michael Hurley,
and our friend Jefferson Currie II. Say whatever prayer you want: to Jehovah or Yahowah,
or Red Rose Nantahala.More than ever before, the supporting players of Hiss Golden
Messenger feature as tellers of the tale. Each episode earns a meticulously turned
ensemble statement.
In the band, rhythm section stalwarts Terry Lonergan (drums) and Taylor’s longtime
musical brother Scott Hirsch (bass, guitar, and production) are joined by Durham multiinstrumen­talist
Phil Cook, Black Twig Pickers banjoist Nathan Bowles, and on Telecaster
William Tyler. Bobby Crow (saxophone), Matt Cunitz (keys), Gordon Hartin (steel guitar),
Joseph DeCosimo (fiddle), Sonia Turner (vocals), and Mark Paulson of the Bowerbirds
(strings) also crew, navigating Haw’s shoals of trouble and delight.
Haw remastered by Chris Boerner at Kitchen Mastering. Artwork reimagined by Sam Smith
(Lateness of Dancers)