On her three previous offerings, Jolie Holland mined the deep well of Americana, from classic pre-war blues and country sources to the feel of speakeasy-era popular and parlor songs and originals that echoed all of the above while being caught in the whirlwind restlessness of millennium-edge America. Her songs and instrumentation were like lovers; they represented the iconic places they held in her life as an artist. The Living and the Dead offers a different side of Holland. Where her own sometimes loose and ranging compositions were influenced by those early styles to the point of poetic obsession, the songs here reflect a tighter, more focused musical view while ratcheting up their emotional intensity. Perhaps this is because parts of it were recorded in various cities such as Portland and Brooklyn, with guests who include Marc Ribot, M. Ward, Colin Stetson, Kenny Wollesen, and Jim White; they play alongside her regular collaborators such as engineer, multi-instrumentalist, and co-producer Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Rachel Blumberg. Production aside, it's the songs that reflect the greatest change here, beginning with the opener "Mexico City," where beat generation heroes Jack Kerouac, wife Edie Parker, and Joan Vollmer (the wife of William S. Burroughs whom he accidentally shot and killed in the infamous "William Tell" incident) lay across the protagonist's bed as she strums through a jangly rock tune and asks: "What's that black smoke rising, Jack? Is the world on fire? What's that distant singing? Is it a heavenly choir of the living and the dead?" "Corrido por Buddy" is a gentle yet harrowing memorial narrative about a man she barely knew who went from "beautiful young man on the streets of Austin," to "...a ghost-faced junkie on the streets of New Orleans..." Beginning with strummed electric guitars, drums kick up the emotional verve in the tune though Holland's voice remains relaxed in its drawling delivery. But she implicates herself as culpable too, and wishes she'd not been so shy with this man who treated her with kindness and compassion in her own needy circumstances. She asks with devastating honesty: "What if they only gave you love when you lied? Everything minus one is everything..." The songs could end right here, but Holland is unflinching as the album tenses up even more with "Palmyra," a meditation on the frailty of human relationships and failings of love. Ribot's guitar work here is biting, warm, and razor-wire sharp, contrasting itself with Holland's steely yet world-weary voice. All of these songs reflect the shortcomings of human beings dealing with one another in an honest, intimate, dependable way, and how it's sometimes impossible to endure -- as one is both victim and perpetrator. There are two covers on this set also: the eerie, stripped, disembodied reading of the traditional "Love Henry," (which wouldn't seem out of place on a Tom Waits record), and the set-ending standard within a standard, "Enjoy Yourself," a late-night back porch reading. But even these songs are haunted by something almost dreadful on Holland's shoulder, making her look back at the road in sorrow, and at the present with the kind of resignation and acceptance that true regret brings. Though her Americana roots still shine through in patches, for The Living and the Dead they are stretched to the breaking point. This is a spooky yet beautiful offering by one of our best musical poets; a true outsider trying to come in from the cold.
web site Ms. Jolie Holland 's voice is a powerful instrument, one as identifiable as any in music. Unlike so many others that push jazzy arrangements into pop songs, nothing about the way she twists sounds ever seems too perfect and that's what makes her songs so real and vivid. It's also what makes her songs so rewarding. A great writer knows when to bend the rules of grammar and structure to m
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"Palmyra" - Jolie Holland I love the timeless, deep-hearted quality of the music here, as well as Holland's fetchingly textured voice. Starting simply, with the acoustic guitar up front, the song picks up depth and punch when the drums and electric guitar kick in in full force, after about a minute. The electric guitarist is the masterly Marc Ribot, who plays with great invention and yet,...
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the living and the dead, the new album from jolie holland, arrives the first week in october (just around the corner, folks) and judging from the first single, "palmyra," it will be a worthy follow-up to 2006's excellent springtime can kill you.locals will have a chance, we presume, to hear much of the new album in living color when holland stops over in her old hometown for a show at bimbo's 3...
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Recently, Anti released the album cover for Jolie Holland's upcoming "The Living and the Dead", and it looks excellent as always. She has always put herself on her album covers, mostly in photographs but once in a drawing. The point is I can't imagine seeing some other design without her in it because she has established this trend so well, it's pretty much set in stone.Most solo artists do put...
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These were some of the albums that I was digging last year, and I'm still into them: Jolie Holland - The Living and the DeadPortishead, ThirdLaura Marling - Alas, I Cannot Swim/ My Maniac and I/ Cross Your FingersThe Hold Steady - Stay PositiveDeerhunter - MicrocastleThe Felice Brothers - The Felice BrothersPonytail - Ice Cream SpiritualBon Iver - For Emma, Forever AgoThe Gossip - Live In Liver...
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Head on over to The Tripwire to download a new Jolie Holland song, "Palmyra." Her third album, The Living And The Dead, is due out on 10/7.Read more at The Tripwire.
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Jolie Holland releases a new video for her song Mexico City - from her third and latest album The Living and the Dead. The album was released last week by ANTI- Records. It's been a couple years since we've written about or even listened to this songbird, but I'm glad we were re-introduced yesterday...beautiful stuff.Jolie Holland on tour with Herman Dune:10-14 SOhO Restaurant & Music Club ...
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The Future :: Jolie HollandHad the pleasure of reviewing the Jolie Holland show in SF for venuszine
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Here I am in Mexico City, rainy Saturday night, mysteries, old dream sidestreets with no names reeling in, the little street where I'd walked through crowds of gloomy Hobo Indians wrapped in tragic shawls enough to make you cry and you thought you saw knives flashing beneath the folds-lugubrious dreams as tragic as the one of Old Railroad Night where my father sits big of thighs in smoking car ...
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Recently, Anti released the album cover for Jolie Holland's upcoming "The Living and the Dead", and it looks excellent as always. She has always put herself on her album covers, mostly in photographs but once in a drawing. The point is I can't imagine seeing some other design without her in it because she has established this trend so well, it's pretty much set in stone.Most solo artists do put...
More >
"Palmyra" - Jolie Holland I love the timeless, deep-hearted quality of the music here, as well as Holland's fetchingly textured voice. Starting simply, with the acoustic guitar up front, the song picks up depth and punch when the drums and electric guitar kick in in full force, after about a minute. The electric guitarist is the masterly Marc Ribot, who plays with great invention and yet,...
More >
web site Ms. Jolie Holland 's voice is a powerful instrument, one as identifiable as any in music. Unlike so many others that push jazzy arrangements into pop songs, nothing about the way she twists sounds ever seems too perfect and that's what makes her songs so real and vivid. It's also what makes her songs so rewarding. A great writer knows when to bend the rules of grammar and structure to m
More >
Wistful Americana torch singer and former Be Good Tanya, Jolie Holland takes to the road next week in support of her latest, electrified effort, The Living and the Dead (via ANTI-), which features cameos from M Ward and Marc Ribot. It's too bad that so many venues have gone smoke-free, as smoke-filled rooms accent perfectly the intimately dark, roots-tinged western folk that radiates through mo...
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Anti's lovely Jolie Holland is playing at Eddie's Attic in Decatur tonight in support of her latest album, "The Living and The Dead," which was released October 7. With guest appearances from M. Ward (My Morning Jacket, She & Him) and Marc Ribot (Elvis Costello, Tom Waits), the Living ...
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the living and the dead, the new album from jolie holland, arrives the first week in october (just around the corner, folks) and judging from the first single, "palmyra," it will be a worthy follow-up to 2006's excellent springtime can kill you.locals will have a chance, we presume, to hear much of the new album in living color when holland stops over in her old hometown for a show at bimbo's 3...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Mexico City |
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| 2 Corrido por Buddy |
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| 3 Palmyra |
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| 4 You Painted Yourself In |
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| 5 Fox in Its Hole |
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| 6 Your Big Hands |
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| 7 Sweet Loving Man |
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| 8 Love Henry |
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| 9 The Future |
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| 10 Enjoy Yourself |
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Click to purchase…
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 "The Living and the Dead")
