Jim James Talks with M.C. Taylor (Hiss Golden Messenger) for The Talkhouse Music Podcast

Two outstanding southern songwriters sit down and delve into the process of how music is created.

Hiss Golden Messenger’s most recent album Lateness of Dancers came out in the autumn of 2014, and found frontman M.C. Taylor’s songwriting process still evolving. He obviously thinks a lot about the craft and inspiration involved, so it’s no surprise that the songwriting process was the main thing he talked about with My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James in this edition of the Talkhouse Music Podcast

My Morning Jacket brings in some disparate outside influences — prog-rock and disco, for instance — while Hiss Golden Messenger mostly keeps it local, with roots in country-rock, folk and Memphis r&b, but both musicians make their acclaimed music with a pronounced southern flavor. They have plenty in common, and they’re fans of each other’s work, which made for an interesting conversation. The two spoke via Skype while both were on tour — Taylor in Toronto and James in Niagara Falls, New York — and together they delved into the enduring mysteries of how songs are made.

Jim James sings, plays guitar and writes songs for My Morning Jacket, whose latest album The Waterfall was released in May 2015. You can follow him on Twitter here. My Morning Jacket’s website is here and you can follow on Twitter here and Facebook here.

M.C. Taylor is the frontman and songwriter of Hiss Golden Messenger, whose most recent album, Lateness of Dancers, came out in the fall of 2014. Hiss Golden Messenger’s Facebook page is here and its website is here.

(Photo Credit: Neil Krug/JimJames.com)