A few months before the pandemic started, I went to see M.C. Taylor’s soft, reassuring Americana project Hiss Golden Messenger. Before one song, Taylor asked how many teachers were in the audience that night, and something like half the crowd cheered. I was at the show with a friend who happens to be a teacher, but when I asked him if Hiss Golden Messenger were just some kind of big band among teachers, he didn’t know. So I will take this opportunity to ask: Is there some big secret bond between Hiss Golden Messenger and people who work as educators? Are they a teacher-culture band?

In any case, Hiss Golden Messenger will release the new album Quietly Blowing It. The follow-up to 2019’s Terms Of Surrender features contributors like Anaïs Mitchell, Dawes’ Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith, and Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman. We’ve already posted the early tracks “Sanctuary,” “If It Comes In The Morning,” and “Hardlytown.” Today, they’ve shared a new track called “Glory Strums (Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner).”

“Glory Strums” is a pretty little acoustic amble of a song. In a press release, Taylor says, “‘Glory Strums’ was written in the chaotic green spring of 2020 as a hymn to finding the places and spaces that make us human.” The song has a video in which director, a singer-songwriter himself, looks dapper while working on his fitness. Hiss Golden Messenger has also announced a big winter tour; check out the video and the dates below.

TOUR DATES:
11/30 – Hummelstown, PA @ The Englewood
12/02 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
12/03 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
12/04 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
12/06 – Providence, RI @ Fete Music Hall
12/07 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
12/08 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
12/09 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
12/10 – Columbia, SC @ The Senate
12/11 – Charleston, SC @ The Pour House
2/03 – Greenville, SC @ Radio Room
2/04 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
2/05 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
2/06 – New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina’s
2/09 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
2/10 – Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips
2/11 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
2/12 – Austin, TX @ Scoot Inn
2/14 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
2/16 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up
2/18 – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
2/19 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
2/23-24 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
2/25 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre
2/26 – Vancouver, BC @ Imperial Vancouver
3/01 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux
3/02 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Commonwealth Room
3/03 – Fort Collins, CO @ Venue TBA
3/04-05 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
3/07 – Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar
3/08 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
3/09 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
3/10 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe
3/11 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
3/12 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl

Quietly Blowing It is out 6/25 on Merge Records. Pre-order it here.