Micah P. Hinson

by Dan Worth

A singer-songwriter with songs worth singing

"He’s been bankrupt, homeless, drug dependent, had a relationship with a Vogue cover model and was recording songs from the age of 19. If your life is more interesting than this we suggest you start learning the guitar."

It’s so hard listening to people sing about things if you just don’t believe them. Let’s take Coldplay. No doubt Chris Martin has been depressed and elated during this life and is as entitled as the next singer-songwriter to convey these emotions. But seeing him and (more likely) his A-list Hollywood wife on the pages of the londonpaper or OK! it’s hard to take his lyrics seriously. This isn’t fair of course: he wasn’t always that person, and songs like ‘Trouble’ from Coldplay’s debut album were probably written in the aftermath of some dark times – maybe after a particularly bad defeat when he was captain of UCL’s Second XI Hockey Team.

However, beneath the mainstream, an area NN much prefers, there are singer-songwriters out there who really have lived a life that entitles that person to tell of their thoughts and feelings through the medium of song without you wanting to punch them in the face. Micah P. Hinson is one of these people.  

He’s been bankrupt, homeless, drug dependent, had a relationship with a Vogue cover model, and was recording songs from the age of 19. Then he decided to clean his life up. Since then he’s released several albums that have garnered rave reviews – NN among them – and settled into some sort of normal life: he proposed to his girlfriend live on stage at the Union Chapel in Islington, London in December of 2007 and they married in April of this year. If your life is more interesting than this we suggest you start learning the guitar.

The sound is a mixture of folk and country and is distinctly an American sound that his upbringing in West Virginia would suggest. However, like all the best music it doesn’t really matter. The genre it fits in to is not relevant to the music’s quality. The mixture of violin, sparse guitar, husky vocals and, sporadically, the drums, is a simple combination that’s done by numerous bands across the globe, American or not. To rise above the rest you’ve got to make sure the music is powerful and interesting and that you’ve got something to say. This is where Hinson shines. On his recently released album ‘Micah P. Hinson & The Red Empire Orchestra’ songs such as ‘Dyin’ Alone’, ‘Come Home Quickly Darlin’’ and ‘I Keep Havin’ These Dreams’ are rich in simple, moving lyrics that sit atop music which flits between sparse, careworn, stirring and heartbreaking in equal measures.

Don’t let this make you think this is downbeat, morose stuff for shoe-gazers. Far from it: Hinson is no soppy-hearted whiner and his voice often crackles with an undercurrent of anger, such as on ‘You Will Find Me’. Yet at other times he turns to his tender side and the contrast between this and his raw moments makes for a startling disparity. ‘When We Embraced’ is positively upbeat and ‘We Don’t Have To Be Lonesome’ may be simple in its message but set against songs like ‘Dyin’ Alone’ its strength comes from this simplicity.

Put it this way – do you want your ‘tortured’ singer-songwriter to have a first-class honours degree from a top London university or do you want him to have said this: “Nothing saved my ass except for me just kind of sitting in this messed up hotel room one day that my grandfather had paid for, because I was homeless, and just realizing that nobody was going to save me anymore. If I was going to have a reasonable life, I was going to have to do it myself.”

Be the first to comment on this article