Colourful life inspires simple heartfelt music

Micah P. Hinson

It's coming to the end of Micah P. Hinson's first Auckland show. The bespectacled and camouflage-capped Texan singer-songwriter has been been holding forth in a cramped corner of a cave-like wine bar beneath K Rd's St Kevin's Arcade.

Playing seated and armed with just an acoustic guitar and his rough-edged but resonant near-baritone singing voice, already he has proved compelling as he's picked the eyes out of his Gospel of Progress album (see review below) and chucked in a cover of Leonard Cohen's Suzanne.

He's also told rambling humorous yarns between songs, including a frequent complaint about our smoking bans in venues like these.

Hinson's next song, though, takes him back to a truly formative influence. One that he absorbed as a kid before his life spiralled out of control in his teens (more of that later).

He half apologises for the song choice but says it also marks some common ground between him and his father - someone who, as an adult, he's started to appreciate again after his lost years.

The song is John Denver's This Old Guitar and in Hinson's hands - even with its references to "my lovely lady" and a "sunny mountainside" - it sure doesn't sound as upbeat as the original.

But you can see why Hinson senior likes his boy playing it - unlike most of his son's own songs, it's got a happy ending.

It's the day after the showcase and Micah (pronounced My-kah, while the "P" is for Paul) is braving a cold wind while sitting on a bench in Myers Park, so he can smoke as we talk. And just as his singing voice is something deep, dark and dusty, so too is his speaking voice, only much quicker.

The first thing to clear up is Hinson's somewhat spectacular record company biography, which tells of a colourful life before his signing.

It involved Hinson being raised in a Christian fundamentalist household in Abiline, Texas.

As a teenager he got involved with the local music scene, and later a Vogue model who was "the widow of a notable local rock star", who introduced him to prescription drugs. It all led to a jail stint for forging prescriptions, as well as bankruptcy, homelessness and a telemarketing job.

Like, really?

"You should probably believe the majority of it," chuckles Hinson, "The truth wasn't stretched. The majority of it is true, man."

Later he expands on his relationship with the unnamed model, whom he met in college when he was 19 and she was 24 and who led him on that road to ruin.

"Yeah that led to me spending all my money, pawning all my musical equipment ... I was so hooked on drugs I was stealing stuff from my folks while they were at work."

And now? "I probably drink too much and smoke too much grass but I'm not living that life of Bukowski - I'm not destroying things just for the sake of art. I've got a bit of a clear mind."

Still, all that personal history is obviously inspiring in the song department and he laughs that he's got a few more albums' worth of songs from it all.

Hinson is here getting the message out about his debut album, which has been trickling out around the world since late last year. It's been picking up glowing reviews and its measured, quietly emotive songs are certainly nothing like where Hinson started out.

"Growing up I always wanted to rock. But my brother always said 'screw rockin' - get an acoustic guitar and just play your songs' ... but I was getting into all these bands trying to be the next Nirvana."

Some of Hinson's songs wouldn't have sounded out of place on Nirvana's Unplugged album, but now he's one of the names that gets filed under the "nu-folk" tag. He doesn't mind that too much.

"The singer-songwriter thing is definitely a very popular thing. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't have a job. People like the Connor Obersts [Bright Eyes] of the world are bringing that kind of stuff to the forefront. "But it's like any kind of music - those who bring it to the forefront I don't think are the ones who really embody the spirit of this whole nu-folk kind of thing."

So why is it so many young folk are doing nu-folk?

One of Hinson's theories is that the first Coldplay album helped get "these depressing songs about all sorts of depressing things" on American radio in an excitable age of Blink-182 and the like. And then there are global events.

"I don't know why and I have nothing to back this statement at all but I think it has to do with the war, man. I think wars have big effects on singer-songwriters. Maybe it has to do with when you're facing that kind of destruction and serious shit - maybe people want a more controlled, emotional kind of music."