Altsounds - Micah P. Hinson: new album ‘All Dressed Up And Smelling Of Strangers’ out 28th Sept

Texan-born Anglophile Micah P Hinson is set to return with two albums of covers, ‘All Dressed Up And Smelling Of Strangers Vol 1 and 2’, which will be simultaneously released as separate discs on 28th September 2009. Micah is also set to play his first London headline show since 2008 at Cargo on the 15th September. Tickets are available from All Tomorrow's Parties - Official Website

“I view the album as two independent projects,” says Hinson. “Volume one is the quieter, calmer songs, Volume two is much louder and loaded with many more instruments. They’re for different moods, different times; the ups and the downs.” ‘All Dressed Up’ follows on from 2008’s critically acclaimed album ‘…And The Red Empire Orchestra’.

The two volumes were recorded in Texas in bursts from November 2008 to March 2009 with regular collaborator T. Nicholas Phelps and cellist Kris Yoemans. Originally toying with numerous concepts and themes (songs from Texas, songs from the States and more), Hinson found that “the thing just wouldn’t fit into a confined space,” and so decided to keep the song choices simple. “The theme is that they all mean something to me; whether that be in the past or present. I feel very moved by songs and music of other men and women, it's gotten me through many a hard time, so it made sense to find those songs and attempt to pull them off. “

As such, there’s a mixture of familiar and unknown, old and new, happy and sad. The album features covers from artists as diverse as Roy Orbison and Leadbelly to Pedro The Lion and Emmy The Great. The treatment in each case is not reverential, but loving, and unique to Micah and his distinct Texan burr.

“I knew that the only way it was to be any good was if I got the skeleton of each song down good, but focused on doing things the way I would do them and try not to think like the original musician. Knowing these songs in and out, I'm sure many of the arrangements bled over, but I did want to make each and every one of them my own in some way.”

An old-fashioned Texan trouble man with a history of minor crimes, drugs and jailtime, these are the songs that took Micah through the hard times, the wild times, and that shaped his world.

Today, Hinson’s life is well and truly back on track. Now married and living in Abilene, Texas, he records, tours, writes fiction and works part time in a comic shop with his buddy Larry. His next musical project is with a new band, Broken Arrows, whose debut album is currently being written and recorded. “I'm also working on, as always, my next full length record. I suppose I'll try to have the bastard done by later this year. Got to always keep the monster going and alive. The shark ethic always prevails...”

Micah’s European live dates in full:

September
12th Auditorio Del Parque, Isla Cristina, Spain
15th Cargo, London - All Tomorrow's Parties - Official Website
17th Le Café De La Danse, Paris
19th La Salumeria Della Musica, Milan, Italy

November
17th Circo, Madrid
18th Bikini, Barcelona
19th Santana 27, Bilbao
20th Festival Insomni, Lleida, Spain
22nd Hipnoza Club (Festival Ars Cameralis), Katowice, Poland
28th Rotonde, Brussels
29th Le Guess Who, Utrecht, Holland

December
4th Teatro Colon, Coruna, Spain
7th Palacio De Festivales, SantanderMicah P. Hinson
Micah P. on MySpace Music