Finally! I finally got to catch a full band Hiss Golden Messenger show! I’ve been a fan of this band for a long time, and the last few times MC Taylor and his band have been through Denver, our schedules haven’t aligned. I got to see Taylor play a solo show at Union Station a few years back, and that was a very special evening but I was longing for the big, full sound of the band and I was not disappointed!
After a very solid opening set from Alexa Rose that focused on poignant well written songs about (in her words) high school and nostalgia, Hiss Golden Messenger took the stage and wasted no time getting things going with “Brother, Do You Know The Road?” which seemed to draw clear inspiration from the late great JJ Cale. In that vein, the easy, laid back nature of this band fits Taylor’s lyrics effortlessly and leaves room to stretch out and jam a bit which they took advantage of several times throughout the evening.
Taylor and company ambled through gems like “Say It Like You Mean It” and “As The Crow Flies” from 2016’s Heart Like a Levee, before dropping into one of my all time favorite HGM tunes, “Jenny of the Roses” from the stellar Hallelujah Anyhow. After following that up with another tune from the same album, “Domino (Time Will Tell),” “Heart Like a Levee” set the stage for Taylor to welcome Drew Sayers (The Motet) to the join the band on saxophone for the rest of the set. With Sayers in the mix, the crew really got to stretch out and jam their way into some swampy, saxy goodness on tunes like “Blue Country Mystic” and “Like a Mirror Loves a Hammer.”
Taylor heralded the need for a strong public education system in this country before diving into “I Need A Teacher,” the lead track from 2019’s Terms of Surrender and then closed the set out with “Southern Grammar.” After a quick break the whole crew returned and dove into a beautiful, 15 minute take on “Bird Song” (Listen Here!) that really benefited from having Sayers on sax and conjured up images of Branford Marsalis sitting in with The Grateful Dead way back in 1990.
While I didn’t make it to night two of the Bluebird run, by all accounts it was just as good, if not better than night one. I can’t wait for the next time I get to catch MC Taylor and his beautiful band on stage.
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