“I’m breaking into my summer vacation right now to do this,” M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger said with a smile at the start of Thursday’s Studio Milwaukee Session. “It’s worth it, though.”
While we’d be flattered to think Taylor would come all the way to Milwaukee during a planned break just for little ol’ us, the real reason for his visit was about a half-mile east, where the Uline Warehouse Stage awaited for his Summerfest set just a few hours later. Amid travel shenanigans and other logistical hurdles, Taylor kindly brought his gear to our stage and provided what turned out to be some much-needed chill considering the heat that was about to descend on our area.
Perched on a stool with his long hair framing a face packed with emotion, Taylor’s sweet vocals and trusty acoustic guitar did all the work of a full band. Both aspects of his performance rose and fell as he guided us through a trio of selections from the more recent end of his discography, including the excellent 2023 album Jump for Joy.
It turned out those weren’t the only things rising and falling for Taylor over the 24 hours or so before he joined us. As he explained between his first two songs, his band and crew endured several flight changes, reroutes and added legs in their efforts to assemble in Milwaukee.
“Everybody ended up in really crazy places,” he shared with the audience. “I’m the only one that made it of my whole band and crew last night. I woke up this morning, and my front-house engineer texted me and said, ‘I’m at LaGuardia right now.’ I was like, ‘You’re pretty far off track, Luke.’”
Unlike the travel situation, Taylor was firmly on top of his game as he performed and chatted with 88Nine music director Erin Wolf about how a musician’s life should give way to family life, finding ways for the two to intertwine, and what he called “the miracle of music.”
Listen to the full Studio Milwaukee Session using the player at the top of the page, and mark your calendar to join us for one (or more) of the special Summerfest sessions we’ve got planned between now and the end of the festival.
