Micah P. Hinson

Born into a strict fundamentalist Christian family in Memphis, Tennessee, singer-songwriter Micah P. Hinson relocated as a teenager to Abilene, Texas, where he first explored both music-making and narcotics. Incarceration, addiction battles, and bankruptcy all occurred before he reached twenty, yet he still became deeply involved in the regional music community. Winter 2003 marked the recording of his debut, supported by the Earlies, a Texas chamber pop collective whose rich arrangements framed Hinson’s affecting stories of romance, heartbreak, and remorse. Sketchbook Records issued Micah P. Hinson & the Gospel of Progress in April 2005. Jade Tree released Baby & the Satellite the next year as Hinson’s first album for the label. Throughout 2006 he also delivered Lights from the Wheelhouse, the initial EP from his more experimental outfit the Late Cord, and followed it that autumn with another Jade Tree set, Micah P. Hinson & the Opera Circuit. He moved to the U.K. imprint Full Time Hobby for 2008’s Micah P. Hinson & the Red Empire Orchestra and the all-covers collection All Dressed Up & Smelling of Strangers the following year. His fourth album of original material, Micah P. Hinson & the Pioneer Saboteurs, arrived in 2010. A near-fatal car crash in 2011 prompted Hinson, while recovering, to revisit earlier demo recordings whose influence shaped the sessions that produced Micah P. Hinson & the Nothing. That release stood as his darkest and most deeply personal body of work to date and drew widespread critical praise. Later projects comprised the 2015 collaboration Broken Arrows, written and tracked with longtime friend and creative partner Nicholas T. Phelps, plus the 2017 album Presents the Holy Strangers.