Sunday, January 07, 2007

Micah P. Hinson

Written by Leah at 13:47


Micah P. Hinson is a singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas who produces music that has an americana/alt-country slant, with hints of gospel and blues.

He has released two albums, 'Micah P. Hinson & The Gospel of Progress' and 'Micah P. Hinson & The Opera Circuit', and in 2005 his earlier (2001) 4-track recordings were rerecorded and released on a record called 'The Baby & The Satellite', a nine track EP where the final track consists of the entire 30 minute original demo.

For me, his music is a mixture of Willy Mason's blunt yet emotional vocal style (however, Micah's vocal technique seems to be a lot more refined), Conor Oberst's fusion of the rock, indie and country genres and M. Ward's storytelling through lyrics, with bursts of Beirut's grand instrumentation. Three records that are worth a listen for fans of any of those artists.

"..the press is really big in to the romanticizing of the destruction of the human soul. And that's fair enough, because at the end of the day, if I didn't have a half-ass reasonable story there would be nobody to talk about me. ..So I'll be the fucked up drug addict."

(you can read the remainder of a lengthy interview with him here)



Listen: Beneath The Rose from Micah P. Hinson & The Gospel of Progress (sendspace)
Listen: Jackeyed from Micah P. Hinson & The Opera Circuit (sendspace)
Listen: The Leading Guy from The Baby & The Satellite (sendspace)

"A lot of people come up to me and say, “I really like the record. I illegally downloaded it and now I really want to buy it.” At the end of the day, I really don't care if people steal my music. If I can affect their lives, that's more important than getting ten bucks out of their pocket. Once ten dollars becomes more important than somebody's soul, I'm fucked and I should probably go put a gun in my mouth. Hopefully it won't come to that."

So he won't be too angry if you download them.

Micah P. Hinson & The Gospel of Progress (buy via Amazon)
Micah P. Hinson & The Opera Circuit (buy via Amazon)
The Baby & The Satellite (buy via Amazon)