Bob Dylan’s original promotional film clip for Subterranean Homesick Blues, which featured in the opening of D. A. Pennebaker’s documentary covering his 1965 England tour Don’t Look Back was almost certainly a forerunner to the MTV era music video. It’s gone on to inspire a lot of other artists to get creative with their marker pens and cards – most recently on these pages with Sunny War’s Mama’s Milk here.
Hiss Golden Messenger follows suit with his latest video for Hardlytown from the highly anticipated album Quietly Blowing It (Merge Records), out on June 25th.
Below he talks of the tension between selflessness and selfishness – something that often comes to the fore when guiding our children in a world dominated by social media and ego.
“The times that we’re living through have made me think, in so many different ways large and small, about our obligations to one another,” says Taylor. “How much to give away? How much to keep for ourselves? How much is too much, and how much is not enough? Maybe the conversation that the mother and son have throughout ‘Hardlytown’ was my attempt to reckon with the tension that exists between selflessness and selfishness.” He adds, “We all know some version of this conversation. We’re currently in the middle of it as a country and as a species. I have two children, and I’m trying to teach them about what it means to be, and the ways we all stand to benefit from being, good neighbors. It’s sort of a simple lesson in theory, but more complicated in practice. But then, I guess all good things are.”
Special guests and contributors on Quietly Blowing It include Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Tony Award-winning artist Anaïs Mitchell, Zach Williams of The Lone Bellow, Nashville guitar great Buddy Miller, and producer/musician Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman.
Pre-order Quietly Blowing It HERE now on CD, LP, and metallic blue Peak Vinyl, or wherever records are sold.