Hiss Golden Messenger Wrapping Up ETH Concert Series
Since June 2011 Newtown resident Hayden Bates has almost single-handedly produced a series of boutique concerts in the Edmond Town Hall Theatre, bringing some of the more eclectic gems sparkling on the new music scene to town.
These were the bands that grabbed hold of Bates and a growing number of his contemporaries and fans, who turned out in passionate but limited numbers to enjoy an experience something like having your favorite group perform in your parlor.
At the same time, Bates had a mission of helping to bring the intimate town hall theater back to its original glory, and he succeeded admirably, raising around $25,000 to date. Proceeds from the show's in the Live at Edmond Town Hall Concert Series have helped underwrite new energy-sipping LED lighting for the stage, a new sound system and most importantly, a contemporary commercial video system that has helped ensure the town hall's famous $2 movies continue to play in the venue.
But as they say, all good things come to an end. Bates has decided to move on to other projects — at least for now — but not before he reels one more intensely talented acts into Edmond Town Hall for a November 20 series closer.
The show, which will begin at 6:30 pm, will feature the rootsy plaintive folk rock of singer-songwriter MC Taylor and his band, Hiss Golden Messenger, with opening support from Frazey Ford.
Bates told The Newtown Bee that he had been familiar with Taylor’s music since his days fronting the band The Court and Spark.
"When that band dissolved and Taylor formed Hiss Golden Messenger, I was already along for the ride," Bates said. "I’ve loved every one of the band’s releases, but the latest album, Lateness of Dancers, is one of the best records of the last couple of years, in my opinion."
He said Taylor's last release instantly brought to mind Veedon Fleece, Bates' favorite Van Morrison record.
"But Taylor has a song-crafting style that’s all his own, and the contributions from William Tyler, Brad Cook, Phil Cook and Scott McCaughey are tremendous," Bates said. "Brad and Phil were in Megafaun with Justin Vernon, and Matt is presently in Bon Iver, so I view Hiss Golden Messenger as a super group, of sorts. Newtown is really fortunate to have this kind of talent coming to town."
After running the Live at the Edmond Town Hall series for five years, Bates confidently looks back with no regrets.
"It’s been a blast. I’ve befriended some of my favorite musicians, and the series has raised somewhere around $25,000 for the theater upgrades," he said. "It’s a ton of work for a solo volunteer endeavor, though, and as much as I love it, I feel I need to take a break."
But Bates is leaving the door open to return for an ETH Concert Series encore, if the mood and the availability of just the right act avails itself.
"Call it an indefinite hiatus. I’m sure I’ll do more shows at some point, or at least I hope so," Bates said. "The biggest struggle with the series has been getting butts in the seats. It’d be a lot easier to market these types of shows in a city as opposed to a small town, but then again, I created this series for this town."
So he's putting out the call to anyone looking to pick up the baton at some point in the future — or maybe more accurately, pitching in to row.
"If I start it back up, I’m going to need some help from like-minded folks," Bates said.
An Important, Incredible Project
For those who may have intended to come to one of the previous Live at Edmond Town Hall shows with acts like Spirit Family Reunion, Quiet Life, Mark Kozelek, The Autumn Defense, Brown Bird, The Low Anthem and Phosphorescent, next week is the final chance for the time being. Attendees to the November 20 set with MC Taylor will find the artist likely still decompressing from what he told The Bee was about the most important and incredible project of his career.
As Taylor describes it on the band's Facebook page, less than a week from his stop in Newtown, he and his band will be premiering Heart Like a Levee, a work commissioned by Duke Performances.
"I was asked to use archival materials to inspire this project, and to that end I spent a lot of time looking at photographer William Gedney's collection of work produced in Kentucky in 1972. It's a rich and heavy series of pictures," Taylor reveals. "These images got inside me.
Taylor also shared that he's spent a lot of time on the road throughout 2014-2015, more than any other time in his life.
"I said goodbye to my family — my wife and two little kids — a lot, and I reckoned with what the universe requires of me to do what I love," he said. "The cycle of songs that I wrote over this past year — in vans, motel rooms, backstages and during my time at home — deal with constant coming and going, the vagaries of life on the road and the confusion of love within my head, the ecstasy and agony of work, the loneliness of crowded places."
This preceding stretch on the road helped Taylor identify with Gedney's subjects: images of people in stark black and white he believes were familiar with these feelings too.
"All of us are," he reckoned. "These songs are my proudest accomplishments. I feel they're the best I've written."
During a call to The Bee ahead of his Gedney show, Taylor said he will be bringing the core group from that premier along — Brad and Phil Cook, and Matt McCaughan — with a possible surprise guest. Perhaps that guest will be a member of the rest of his Gedney ensemble, multi-instrumentalists Ryan Gustafson, Mark Paulson (of Bowerbirds) or Mike Lewis (of Bon Iver and The Tallest Man On Earth).
Taylor said when he viewed and lived with the images, he thought he might change his songwriting process to come up with something more narrative, creating stories around the subjects in those often visceral photos.
"I worked that way for a few months, but it didn't feel genuine," he admitted. "I had a hard time coming up with narratives that felt real. I'm not a narrative songwriter, so to try and do that — regardless of whether there were photographs surrounding me — it felt foreign.
"I'm an abstract songwriter," he continued. "My songs are snapshots that allow people to create their own stories and to connect their own dots."
Taylor was not certain he would be ready to perform any of the Gedney material in Newtown.
"It's not that we're not prepared. I'm just not sure if I'm ready to unveil these songs to the world outside this Duke performance," Taylor said. "There may be a song or two we could sneak in. I'm just not ready to say."
What is now certain, however, is that Taylor is turning the Gedney exhibit material into his latest album project.
"I haven't actually told anybody yet, but this record is basically done," he said. "We probably have another week of work and we'll mix it and deliver it to our label by the end of December."
Taylor said the ETH audience is sure to see a mix of material, heavy on Lateness of Dancers, but also including a dollop of tunes from earlier projects Haw and Poor Moon. At the same time, Taylor might sneak in a cover of a Waylon Jennings or a Van Morrison tune — but he tends to stay away from the oldest material in his catalog.
"There are a few outlier records that I don't play songs from because I don't feel a connection to them as much anymore — we don't play anything off of Country Hai East Cotton," he said.
Check out MC Taylor performing the title track from the latest Hiss Golden Messenger project, Live on KEXP @Pickathon (an ad may play first).Lateness of Dancers
Hiss Golden Messenger performs "Blue Country Music" in studio at WAMU for Bandwidth.fm
Tickets for Live at Edmond Town Hall: MC Taylor/Hiss Golden Messenger are $20. They can be purchased at .edmondtownhall.org/liveateth