MICAH P. HINSON

Born in Memphis but raised in Texas, Micah P Hinson didn’t initially understand his uniqueness. For one thing, he is of Chickasaw descent, a Native American tribe known for being particularly fierce warriors. For another, his family belonged to The Church of Christ, which is, as he explains it, “one of the newest and the strictest and the most bizarre sects of Christianity.”

His debut album, Micah P. Hinson and the Gospel of Progress released in 2004 earned him instant acclaim and a significant European following. Hinson’s next nine albums fared equally well, establishing him as one of the more innovative and interesting singer-songwriters in the international alt-folk scene. Yet, in early 2020, Micah P. Hinson almost walked away from his music career.

“It hit me that all I was doing was writing about my previous relationships and situations, and that meant I had nowhere to go,” Hinson says. “How can you progress as a human being into the future if all you’re doing is writing about all the shit that chains you to the past?”

He vowed, from then on, to only write about things happening to him in the present – but first, he would gain closure by reworking and recording all the remaining older songs he’d been saving from the previous twenty-five years. This approach utterly revitalized him, prompting him to create I Lie to You, his eleventh studio album, where he takes the listener through one final look back at his remarkable life story so far.

I Lie To You was recorded with Italian producer Alessandro “Asso” Stefana, who’s worked with PJ Harvey and Mike Patton, He steered the songs into a stripped down style that beautifully showcases Hinson’s intensely honest and evocative lyrics. There is only one album track, “Ignore the Days,” that Hinson wrote since he turned 40 last year. In this way, the song serves as a kind of bridge between his past and the new forward-focused life he’s just beginning.