Album: Micah P Hinson, Micah P Hinson and the Red Empire Orchestra (Full Time Hobby)

Like some old sharecropper bluesman, Micah P. Hinson has known trouble most of his life, from addiction, jail and bankrupcy to the chronic back trouble which plagued him during the recording and promotion of his second album, Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit.

He was unsure what to do next when producer John Congleton (Polyphonic Spree, Black Mountain, Antony & The Johnsons) persuaded him to get back in the saddle and ride again. The result is ...and the Red Empire Orchestra, another set of songs marked by hope and despondency, the latter rather more than the former.

Hinson grapples with his hopes and needs, “constantly craving what isn’t mine” in “Tell Me It Ain’t So”, before realising his goals are already within his grasp in “I Keep Having These Dreams”.