Weekly Release Spotlight: Micah P. Hinson

Posted on 8/31/2008

Micah P. Hinson

Micah P. Hinson And The Red Empire Orchestra

[Full Time Hobby]

The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl are two of America's saddest entries in world history and yet Micah P. Hinson, a descendant of the soul-piercing folk music that those times begot, receives infinite more attention and praise over in the UK than he does here in his homeland. Overwrought hyperbole might suggest that he feels too much for the average consumer of the generic twang and MOR Americana that populates our country's record store shelves, both indie and otherwise. However, since Hinson is getting more optimistic on his latest album Micah P. Hinson and The Red Empire Orchestra (released via a UK label this time around), so should we. If anything will get him noticed, it will be thirteen tracks of immaculately sculpted strings, both acoustic and orchestral, underneath the most confident baritone and lyrical musings the man has ever put to tape.

But we'd be getting ahead of ourselves if these songs were covered first before Hinson's back story. It's one that is mentioned in almost every piece written about his music - for once not because there's nothing else interesting about the music or the songwriter behind it, but because it's so obviously a burning and integral element of the music that it is impossible to go without mention. Fleeing from his Memphis parents to Texas as a teenager, struggling with addiction, declaring bankruptcy, and spending time in jail, Hinson has somehow also found the time to record and release four albums (and tour behind all of them). And he hasn't even reached the age of 30 yet. To comment just by calling his youth turbulent would be to undercut his transformation. It has made him what he is today: a man whose past will not let him go, so he might as well sing about it with open eyes aimed toward his future.

"My soul's left the floor, and he's left it all to me," is the saddest and most existential way he could possibly convey the metaphor of turning a new leaf on the album's last track "You Ain't Callin' The Shots," but it's a prime example of Hinson's gorgeous style of brooding while basking. His voice may sound limp and haggard at first, but when he inflects to meet the roseate piano notes on "Tell Me It Ain't So" or growls to complement the audacious electric chugs of "You Will Find Me," his range (both emotional and musical) shines through like the autumn sun burning down on an evening porch seat. "You can say I need another day but I don't need anything but you," he closes out on the standout track "I Keep Havin' These Dreams", intertwined between a heavenly string arrangement and guitar plucking - it's songs like these that show brightness in the woodwork for both Hinson and his fans.

Written by Chris Polley, Radio K volunteer and host of Now Like Photographs.