It’s spring of 2023 in the North Carolina Piedmont, and songwriter and singer M.C. Taylor—leader of the bandHiss Golden Messenger—is feeling alive. Joyful. Eternal, he might say. For the Grammy-nominated musician, whose albums have traced an internal path through adulthood, fatherhood, spirituality, and depression for well over a decade, this is something new.“The tunes onJump for Joy were composed in free moments throughout 2022, a year during which Hiss was on the road more or less constantly,”explains Taylor.“And perhaps because the post-pandemic energy out in theworld felt so chaotic and uncertain, I found myself thinking a lot about the role that music has played in my life and how exactly I ended up in the rarefied position of leading a band and crew allover the globe through dingy graffiti-scrawled green rooms, venerated music halls, dust-blown roadside motels. Sometimes playing in front of 5,000; sometimes 200. Sleeping sitting up. Laughing until my stomach hurts. Not being able to fall asleep at 3a.m.in some anonymous bed because my mind is spinning with anxiety or depression or adrenaline, or because my ears are still ringing.Robbing Peter to pay Paul, then robbing Paul to pay Peter back. Over and over again. It’s an outlaw life but one, I’m coming to realize, that makes me happy.”