Sterling Silver

It’s been many years since Devon Sproule first charmed Charlottesville, VA with her intricate songwriting and stunning vocal style. Ms. Sproule’s music evokes a pastoral America full of sublime views and cozy vignettes. At the age of 25, she has mastered the art of lifting surfaces to momentarily reveal a lazy afternoon or a sun-flecked stream. Read more

Old Fashioned Songbird

In a land where the blues reign, where California is both home and a place far, far away, and where pretty much all emotions reflect off the surface of the radiant moon before hitting paper, resides Jolie Holland. Raised in Houston, and somewhat of a gypsy traveler from Austin to New Orleans to Vancouver, BC to San Francisco, this woman’s music possesses that elusive authentic quality that demands notice. The success of her first solo album, Catalpa, earned her a spot on Anti- Records’ roster, home to such icons as Daniel Lanois, Tom Waits, and Merle Haggard.

Though it’s the 21st century and Holland lives in San Francisco, her music sounds more like it is from the first half of the 20th. In the era before music splintered into blues, jazz, pop, country, folk, and gospel, it would have been much simpler to describe the sound. Her latest release, Escondida, includes straight blues, a civil war dirge, and a sincere love song for her ukulele, among other things.

defining characteristic of Holland’s music is the sense of stable optimism that permeates everything. She sings about death and loneliness and regret, but it lacks grief. In her most frank confrontation of lost love, the chorus reminds: “I know there’s a sunrise on the other side to pull me through.”

One of the highlights of this entirely solid album is ‘Goodbye California,’ an upbeat country track that highlights her mystical, finely sharpened sense of imagery:

When I’m dead and gone
My immortal home
Will hold me in its bosom
Safe and cold
No more desires
Will light their fires
Or disturb my immaculate calm
And the birds of the air
And the beasts of the soil
And the fishes of the desperate seas
Will know who I am
And our substance will expand
As part of everything
                            –Jolie Holland

Other lovely parts of the album include the bits of musical saw, the gory English tale of ‘Mad Tom of Bedlam’ and the wistful ‘Damn Shame.’

Downloads:

All The Morning Birds
I Wanna Die
Goodbye California
Damn Shame

WWW:
Jolie Holland - official site
Jolie Holland - official site at ANTI- Records

* Special thanks to Ali Marcus, who contributed this post.