Hiss Golden Messenger's Quietly Blowing It was written and arranged
by M.C. Taylor in his home studio—his 8’ × 10’ sanctuary packed floor
to ceiling with books, records, and old guitars—as he watched the chaotic
world spin outside his window. Between March and June 2020, Taylor wrote and
recorded upwards of two dozen songs—in most cases playing all of the
instruments himself—before winnowing the collection down and bringing them to
the Hiss band. In July, the group of musicians, with Taylor in the production
seat, went into Overdub Lane in Durham, NC, for a week, where they
recorded Quietly Blowing It as an organic unit honed to a fine edge from their
years together on the road.
Throughout Quietly Blowing It, Taylor brings his keen eye to our “broken
American moment”—as he first sang on Hiss Golden
Messenger’s critically acclaimed, GRAMMY®-nominated Terms of
Surrender — in ways that feel devastatingly intimate and human.
