Micah P. Hinson - Micah P. Hinson and the Gospel of Progress (2004) Lossless

When the first album from Micah P. Hinson came out in 2004, the Americana crowd was shocked by the almost unnerving maturity from the pen of this young Memphis songwriter. An early spell in jail probably imparted a lot of precocious wisdom to this new bard with an odd baritone voice which is always lingering at the edges of tunefulness. Wrapped up in a fairly minimalist instrumentation punctuated with an echo to lift it up, this melancholy writing is rooted in his wild years. Not a thousand miles from Bright Eyes, Smog, Sparklehorse, Silver Jews, Lambchop or Willy Mason, Hinson consistently finds a killer melodic move, a little heady motif that adorns these stories of broken hearts: to stunning effect. He's a sharp melodist first and foremost, who sparingly injects drops of piano, cello, flute, melodica or organ into the hearts of these miniatures. Years after its release, Micah P. Hinson & The Gospel Of Progress remains an elegiac summit of timeless country-folk, just as sombre as it should be.