Album review: Hiss Golden Messenger, Haw (Paradise of Bachelors)

Hiss Golden Messenger, Haw (Paradise of Bachelors)

There's a strange, archaic feel to the songs of head Messenger, MC Taylor, with their Biblical references and invocations to “cleave ye to the rock”.

Taylor's music occupies what might be called the revivalist-preacher end of Americana, with jaunty country picking interspersed with more ramshackle, homely arrangements jerry-built from fragments of folk, soul, rock and gospel. But when it comes together as engagingly as this, especially on “Red Rose Nantahala”, with its refrain “Oh Lord, be happy”, it's hard not to be converted.

Download: Red Rose Nantahala; Sufferer (Love My Conqueror); What Shall Be (Shall Be Enough); Busted Note