For its first foray into contemporary music, Paradise of Bachelors is proud to present “Poor Moon,” the greatest Hiss Golden Messenger album to date.
Composed and arranged by Head Messenger M.C. Taylor at his home in the rural Piedmont mill town of Pittsboro and recorded with longtime collaborator Scott Hirsch in New York, California and North Carolina, “Poor Moon” offers a moving culmination of the spiritually-charged song cycle commenced on last year’s critically acclaimed “Bad Debt” album. Treading a red-clay road between “Bad Debt” and “Country Hai East Cotton” in sound and sentiment, it is the first fully electric ensemble recording since the highly limited HGM live release “Root Work” in 2010.
Featuring contributions from Terry Lonergan, Nathan Bowles (Black Twig Pickers; Pelt), Hans Chew (D. Charles Speer & the Helix), Matt Cunitz (Brightblack Morning Light), Tom Heyman (The Court & Spark), and others, “Poor Moon” represents both an elaboration and inversion of previous Hiss Golden Messenger efforts, proposing an America at perpetual sundown, wracked by devotion, wrecked by celebration. Named in homage to the Canned Heat track penned by the immortal Blind Owl, “Poor Moon” conjures the unsteady experience of soul at home in the wild, and it stands as a captivating document of Southern songcraft.
On November 1, 2011, this autumnal album of twelve songs was released in a limited, hand-numbered edition of 500 copies, pressed on 150-gram virgin vinyl, packaged in tip-on sleeves with drawings by visual artist Alex Jako, and including digital download coupons. This edition has sold out, and is now available in subsequent editions, each limited to 500.