Ahead of their seventh studio album “Terms of Surrender” (September 20th on Merge), North Carolina’s Hiss Golden Messenger have shared new song “Happy Birthday, Baby”. The news was accompanied by details of UK tour dates in December (details below).
The group’s leader and creative mastermind M.C. Taylor wrote the track, which features a nursery rhyme-like counting chorus, for his daughter’s fifth birthday. “It’s mostly a love letter to her, part apology, part plea for forgiveness, and part recounting of the day she was born, when all the roads boiled over with rainwater and thunder and lightning filled the air,” the singer-songwriter says of the lyrics. “There are also many secret things in this song that only my family knows about
“Happy Birthday, Baby” also serves as a confessional, with Taylor transforming the sweet song for his daughter into a sombre occasion to reflect on his own feelings of guilt and regret. “When you think of me,” he sings to his child, “think of me better than I think of myself.”
The album which was produced by Taylor and Brad Cook also features guest appearances by Jenny Lewis, Josh Kaufman and Aaron Dessner of The National. The album was recorded at Dessner’s Long Pond studio in upstate New York, with additional recording at Sound City in Los Angeles, Haptown Studio in Nashville and Overdub Lane in Durham, North Carolina.
Hiss Golden Messenger UK Tour Dates
09-Dec: The Haunt – Brighton, UK
10-Dec: Village Underground – London, UK
11-Dec: Hare & Hounds – Birmingham, UK
12-Dec: Brundell Social Club – Leeds, UK
13-Dec: CCA – Glasgow, UK
14-Dec: Thekla – Bristol, UK
Tickets from http://www.hissgoldenmessenger.com/tour-dates-2
Photo Credit: Graham Tolbert