Record Review Rewind::Malcolm Holcombe's "Not Forgotten" (2006)

Malcolm Holcombe [photo by Bill Emory]


growl \'graul\, n 1 : a low angry guttural sound uttered by an animal 2 : to utter a deep threatening sound ~ vb [see also Malcolm Holcombe ]


There just isn’t any other way to say it. Malcolm Holcombe growls. His voice is the dark energy of an oncoming thunderstorm, his words lurk just on the edge of the woods outside the campfire’s flame, and on his latest album, the self-released twelve song cycle entitled Not Forgotten, Malcolm Holcombe sounds like a caged animal unleashed. Not Forgotten may be Malcolm Holcombe at his very best and considering his back catalogue, that's saying a whole hell of a lot.

The first time I heard Malcolm Holcombe was a number of years ago while spending some time down in Asheville, North Carolina (which is also Holcombe’s home base). I was listening to WNCW 88.7FM, one of that region’s finest Americana stations, and on comes this voice that just blows my doors off. It’s one of those moments where you sit in the car and wait some ten minutes just so you can hear the deejay come on and tell you what you just heard. As a matter of fact, I would drive to a local music store that very day and buy the only album by Malcolm on the store’s shelves. Lucky for me that record turned out to be Holcombe's debut A Hundred Lies (Hip O /Universal).

When A Hundred Lies was first released, Rolling Stone magazine’s David Fricke gave the album four stars and both Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams were instrumental in getting the album a major label release and in bringing attention to this new and quite original voice. And a quick disclaimer: Calling Malcolm Holcombe’s voice new is missing the point; it’s actually quite old, much like the mountains he calls home. The sound of his rumbling growl sticks with you for some time and it’s a voice that haunts the songs it lives in. [review continues after the break]

------------ Purchase: Malcolm Holcombe--Not Forgotten

------Following the release of A Hundred Lies in 1999, other albums would later follow. First in 2003 comes the follow-up record Another Wisdom and that is followed a couple years later by I Never Heard You Knockin' in 2005. The ...Knockin' record would be Malcolm’s first self-released album and it would end up making a number of “best of” lists for the year, including those of the Wall Street Journal and New York Daily Times. And now with the release of Not Forgotten Malcolm Holcombe matches, if not surpasses, much of his previous work to date.The album's first cut, “Sparrows and Sparrows”, comes off like a forgotten Woody Guthrie song, with a touch more blues and a glass full of whiskey bottle shards. That’s followed by “Goin’ Home” which is filled with both longing and leaving: “You tried to hold me like no tomorrow / You tried to keep me on your mind / But I still hear the mornin’ thunder / I still see you there in the window ... right behind you is my suitcase / Follow me boy we’re goin’ home”. Home as it turns out is where the heart is and this cut has plenty of heart. Jared Tyler gives “Goin Home” drive with stand-out dobro playing (he shines throughout the disc not only on dobro, but also on bottle neck guitar and lap steel) and Holcombe complements with his own superb picking on guitar.Often compared vocally to Tom Waits, Not Forgotten features at least two cuts that are guaranteed to ensure those comparisons between Waits and Holcombe continue. Both songs are found near album’s end. The first is “Animated Sanctuary”, which features just Malcolm’s voice and guitar and the second is “This Ol’ House”, with Holcombe on guitar, Tyler once again on dobro, and Aaron Price on acoustic piano. If you close your eyes and listen, you’d swear both songs were from the Waits’ songbook (especially “This Ol’ House” which sounds like it was one of the cuts left off of the classic Waits' album The Heart of Saturday Night.)And whiles comparisons are sometimes necessary to give the reader a reference point, Holcombe overcomes these connections by filling his songs with a sense of place that is Holcombe's own. The Southern, rural images of fields of tobacco, corn, and barley are front in center in songs like “Sanctuary” and there's a sense of alone-ness and isolation in “This Ol’ House” that is reminiscent of the material that you might find in the mountain blues of Doc Watson or the high lonesome ballads of Dr. Ralph Stanley. What we're left with is the sense that Holcombe’s roots are firmly planted in the images of Appalachia and that sensibility continues through many of the songs of his new collection.But the real surprises on Not Forgotten are not those songs that are firmly planted in the blues but come on with an edge of rock-n-roll as found on both “Cryin’ Dime” and “Yesterday’s Clothes”. Together they introduce us to a side of Holcombe’s music not heard on past releases and the band of Tyler, Price (this time on B-3 organ), Bill Reynolds on bass (from Donna the Buffalo), and Josh Daly on drums pound away and Malcolm’s aforementioned growl takes on a greater power that borders on a frenzied, focused rage. The results are potently powerful.I had the opportunity a couple of years ago to interview Malcolm Holcombe while working for a non-commercial radio station back in the mountains of West Virginia. I should add that if you've ever spoken to Holcombe, his voice alone is a presence that sinks its teeth into your ear. But I remember asking Holcombe to define his sound and he gave me the simplest of answers. He told me his music is "folk music ... nothing more, nothing less". More recently in an online interview he described it as “blood flowin’ folk ballads with no sound explanation”. I think that about sums it all up.As the music of Not Forgotten fades I almost expect a storm to roll in from off in the distance. And as the bugs beat against the screen door and some animal in the thick air of late spring growls from the edge of darkness, I wouldn't be surprised in the least to hear Malcolm Holcombe's voice rising up to answer its call. I hit play on the CD player and I wait.------Note: This review originally appeared on the San Antonio-based website AmericanaRoots.com as part of my continuing album review series for the site called "One Hoarse Town". Many thanks to all the folks at AmericanaRoots, especially to Gregg, Ray, and Eric for all their support at a time when I had no idea what the hell I was doing and for guiding me through the wonderful world of online publishing. Keep it real, keep it Americana guys. The published version of the review above has been edited and slightly altered from the original.