Hiss Golden Messenger - I'm People Tour w/ Sam Amidon

The Read

Hiss Golden Messenger’s catalog runs on a particular tension: the grooves are loose and warm, often close to soul or gospel, while the lyrics keep circling doubt, fatherhood, and the difficulty of staying decent. Taylor’s band plays it with a slack, elastic feel that makes long songs go by fast. It is Southern music that never once condescends to its own tradition. Sam Amidon is not a standard opener. He works with traditional material — old ballads, shape-note tunes, murder songs — and dismantles them into something spare and slightly haunted. Together the bill covers a lot of ground without ever raising its voice. The Basement East on a Saturday, a room warm enough to suit both halves.

The Room

The Basement East

917 Woodland St

Mike Grimes of Grimey's opened it in April 2015 — the graduation from The Basement on 8th, with a bigger room and a bigger calendar.