Hiss Golden Messenger Channels Dylan on New Single and Music Video

 In advance of the release of his new album, Quietly Blowing It, indie rocker Hiss Golden Messenger has released “Hardlytown,” a new song and video (directed by KidEthnic). The album arrives on June 25.

“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 Messenger’s MC Taylor in a press release. “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 says the Dylan-esque song addresses that issue of selflessness vs. selfishness.

“We all know some version of this conversation,” Taylor says. “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.”

Written, arranged and produced by Taylor, the album serves as the follow-up to 2019’s critically acclaimed release Terms of Surrender, which received a 2021 Grammy Award nomination for Best Americana Album. 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.