The Telegraph - March 11, 2016
MALCOLM HOLCOMBE: ANOTHER BLACK HOLE (GYPSY EYES MUSIC)
Best Country Music Albums of 2016
With his raspy voice and gritty songwriting, Malcolm Holcombe reeks of authentic Americana. I liked To Get By, an ironic lamentation on the American Dream. Jared Tyler offers fine support on guitar and Drea Merritt serves up some lovely vocal harmonies. September is a bleak talking song but the highlight is Another Black Hole, with the lines "the radio plays for the happy-go-lucky/That ain't my set o' wheels." ★★★☆☆
R2 magazine - March-April 2016
American Roots UK - March 2016
As the New Year gets into its stride it's an early start for what will inevitably be one of 2016s highlights. For many years now every new release from Malcolm Holcombe has been anticipated as perhaps his best ever and maybe even his career defining album? Such was the case with this tremendous recording that has all of his usual hallmarks of high quality writing, hugely evocative vocals, exquisite melodies and an all round edginess that whilst natural to this man, is something few others can achieve. It's only when you perhaps listen to some of his other recent albums that you realize that it is not so much a case of being his best or 'career defining' but is actually more a question of maintaining a peerless standard that you can't help but feel is not really humanly possible!
We all talk about genres of music and the difficulty with some albums of trying to give the record buyer a comparison that will help them decide on whether to purchase a recording (or not!) but as with his considerable back catalogue there is no other artist that Malcolm can be compared to. Certainly there is a lot of country music, blues, folk and probably much more, even including on occasions a little old timey 'front porch' music in what he does. The problem with giving him a label is that all of these various genres are mixed together in varying degrees with perhaps individual songs leaning a little closer to one genre or another but never exclusively so making it impossible to slot him into a nice comfortable genre.
It is obvious to his ever increasing band of listeners that Malcolm is a man who writes without any thought of genre, simply getting his often poetic story songs, many of them cloaked in darkness, out to the listener and leaving any labelling up to them. His style is completely natural and totally lacking in any artifice ensuring he is not only unique but also powerfully compelling, dredging sympathy out of the listener that most other vaguely similar artists struggle to get anywhere near. He has the ability to write appealing, memorable melodies that often have a lovely light feel and amalgamate them with some deep dark, but thoughtful, lyrics with his always raw vocal style contrasting beautifully with those melodies.
Malcolm wrote all ten of the songs on this album that vary from hard hitting darkness to tender ballads, all composed with his usual blend of extraordinary descriptive writing and high quality literacy. Whilst he is not an avid user of metaphor, some of his songs can take time to unravel and it is that which adds depth to the recording and repays the listener for his/her patience, a state of affairs that has existed throughout his career.
The album was produced by Ray Kennedy, a man who has taken over production duties on a few of Malcolm's albums so is well versed in the intricacies of this true originals musical requirements. It is not only the producer who has become a regular, with help also coming in the form of a number of top notch musicians who have worked with Malcolm before. There is Jared Tyler on guitar, banjo, mandolin, dobro and backing vocals, David Roe on bass and Ken Coomer on drums, with Tony Joe White playing electric guitar on many of the tracks and Roy Wooten adding his percussive flair.
The album opener, Sweet Georgia gets things going with banjo, guitar and percussion eventually joined by the dobro on a song that musically at least has an easy rolling feel although it is in fact a sad tale of loss. Malcolm's vocal seems, despite the usual raw edge, to have taken on more warmth on this sad reflective, musically upbeat tale. This is followed by the deep dark Another Black Hole, where the seedy side of life on the wrong side of the tracks is accepted as the norm, with driving bass, percussion and a sinister sounding electric guitar on a darkly atmospheric tale on which his vocals are at their raw and most evocative best and the arrangement equally full of darkness. Next up is To Get By, another easy rolling tale musically, with thudding bass, tuneful guitar and percussion on a song that is reminiscent, at least for me, of Guy Clark. Don't Play Around is propelled by a deep powerful bass, percussion and dobro on a dark swampy tale, with his seemingly whiskey soaked vocal full of an almost sinister gravel on a tale that pulls no punches. Finally, Papermill Man is led by a thudding percussion and electric guitar giving the song a swamp rock feel in much the same way as classic Tony Joe White, although there is more darkness to Malcolm's music and his straining vocal creates a much mistier, sinister atmosphere, with some tremendous female harmonies dragging the song towards a powerful New Orleans feel.
So, is this album his best ever or maybe even career defining? It's tempting to say it is but that would be because the songs are still relatively new to me and would be a putdown of everything that has gone before. The fact is that every album he has made for many years is his best ever and each of these tremendous recordings defines this genuinely unique musician's career.
http://www.americanrootsuk.com/malcolm-holcomb---another-black-hole.html
rootstime.be - March 2016
Luc Meert
www.rootstime.be
whisperinandhollerin.com - March 2016
Denison (IA) Bulletin/Review - March 2016
Maverick Country - April 2016
Country Music People - March 2016
rootshighway.it - February 22, 2016
Acoustic Magazine - March 2016
No Depression - February 11, 2016
Malcolm Holcombe is the Truest Troubadour
For all the darkness in Malcolm Holcombe’s signature rasp, his newest record is a bright and shiny bluesy country rock gem. Don’t let the title, Another Black Hole, deceive you – this album’s sound is anything but. The guitar chords are warm and so is Holcombe’s vocal performance, from the upbeat opening track “Sweet Georgia” to the blue collar tale “Papermill Man.” The songs on Hole move at a brisk pace, with driving guitar melodies.
Holcombe has a knack for exploring the depths of the working class life, good and bad. He is a storyteller, and his songs have history. “Papermill Man” in particular, captures the gritty banalities of mill work in a vivid, descriptive way: “Smoke blowing up in the air/One room shack/One room school…Sawmill sawdust stuck in your lungs/And your head can’t hear the thunder,” he sings, transporting us to this one-horse town that sucks its people in. Holcombe has always been a classic troubadour, a little rough around the edges, no frills and as authentic as it gets.
“Leavin’ Anna” is one of the best examples of Holcombe’s narrative touch. “We traveled where the money was good…A workin’ man is a workin’ man,” he sings, setting a somewhat depressing tale of paycheck to paycheck life to a guitar tune that will make you feel light-hearted and hopeful. That is the trick at play on Hole: you may be distracted by the buoyant melodies so much so that you forget the often gloomy subject matter. For instance, “To Get By” is another tune about scraping by on a meager supply. His acute attention to detail (grocery lists on a Frigidaire; the local store on Main St. where you’ve still got credit) gives the song a sense of identity and atmosphere that personalizes it. Holcombe is a master at this, and Hole proves why.
BY MAERI FERGUSON , STAFF REVIEWER
FEBRUARY 11, 2016
The Irish Times - February 18, 2016
Malcolm Holcombe – Another Black Hole: dystopian but uplifting country soul
“The radio plays for the happy- go-lucky / That ain’t my set of wheels . . .” The years are not making Malcolm Holcombe’s outlook any sunnier.
Yet this craggy country soul songsmith defies his dystopian demeanour with a spirited, even uplifting, set that peels back his grim North Carolina childhood and fragments of what followed.
At their best, there is a colourful grittiness in Holcombe’s often opaque stories that, allied to sweet melody, creates a haunting synthesis.
His nicotine-scarred voice is no easy listen, but it adds drama and a sense of honesty.
Producers Ray Kennedy and Brian Brinkerhoff empathise with a warm, subtle soundscape that makes use of top-notch players such as Tony Joe White and fellow six-string shaper Jared Tyler.
Drea Merritt’s harmonies also shine. Tracks of note include Sweet Georgia, the title track and Papermill Man.
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/malcolm-holcombe-another-black-hole-dystopian-but-uplifting-country-soul-1.2539593
https://twitter.com/IrishTimesCultr
American Songwriter - February 2016
Malcolm Holcombe
Another Black Hole
(Gypsy Eyes)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
His croak of a voice makes Tom Waits sound like James Taylor, but blues-folkie Malcolm Holcombe has used it to his advantage to craft over a dozen albums during the past two decades. They feature his distinctive whisky-laced gravel vocals over an earthy, generally acoustic approach. As you can imagine, Holcombe isn’t singing many tender love songs and this disc’s title, along with its cover drawing of a skeletal corpse being eaten away by rats, prepares the listener for another set of dark, gritty songs about those that are down and mostly out.
With production, engineering, mixing and mastering from Ray Kennedy (Steve Earle, Billy Joe Shaver) and a backing band consisting of veterans like Tony Joe White and drummer Ken Coomer (Wilco, Uncle Tupelo), Holcombe spins 10 tales that mix country, bluegrass, blues and folk in a musky, dusky yet surprisingly melodic concoction. Add the singer’s poetic, raw-edged lyrics that, along with his weathered voice, make every shadowy story sound as if he’s recounting it first hand, for another quality title in an expanding catalog that has never followed a traditional path.
Even if the music is slightly brighter as in the opening “Sweet Georgia” led by Jared Tyler’s banjo, Holcombe’s concepts stay ominous with visions of “small town darkness” and “angry eyes starin’.” The title track tells of a homeless wanderer as the singer growls over Tony Joe White’s grimy slide atop a swamp groove you can sink into up to your waist. Things get greasy on the harrowing “Don’t Play Around” with Holcombe moaning about “Annie settin’ in jail for another 12 years/ya know it coulda’ been me,” you sense this may be based on personal experience. Creepy backing vocals from Drea Merritt bring additional bone chilling atmosphere.
Clearly this is not for the squeamish, even when Holcombe rocks out like the Stones taking a one way trip to hell on “Papermill Man.” But it’s not strictly for the converted either because for all the gloomy, rusted out yet impeccably crafted lyrics, the music feels lived in, alive and real. Holcombe might not be telling his life stories but it seems like he is, which makes this one of the more immediate entries into his impressively edgy catalog. Fans of Waits, White, Ray Wylie Hubbard, James McMurtry and other troubadours of the troubled should naturally gravitate to Holcombe whose adventurous wordsmithing and tough, blue collar storytelling are easily on par with the finest of his peers.
MusicRiot.co.uk - February 14, 2016
The Independent - February 2, 2016
Blabber 'n' Smoke - February 9, 2016
Malcolm Holcombe. Another Black Hole. Proper Records
Hot on the heels of last year’s The RCA Sessions where Holcombe re recorded some of his lengthy back catalogue Another Black Hole is a very fine collection of ten new songs guaranteed to satisfy fans old and new. Holcombe certainly seems to be of the opinion that “it it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” so there’s a familiarity to many of the songs here. Country and folk blues tunes, eminently foot tappable with his guitar picking to the fore, his voice still gruff and rough, gnarling the words, chewing them up and spitting them out. Of course the words are masterful; he’s an excellent story teller, able to open up worlds in the manner of Guy Clark and John Prine, vivid images and characters populating the songs.
Recorded in Nashville with his regular studio band, Jared Tyler (guitar, mandolin, banjo, dobro), David Roe (bass) and Ken Coomer (drums) Holcombe does add some new meat to the stew in the shape of the legendary Tony Joe White who adds some stinging guitar to several of the songs while additional percussion is handled by “Futureman,” AKA Roy Wooten. Drea Merritt adds her voice to several of the selections, her vocals on Papermill Man recalling Merry Clayton on Gimme Shelter. Together they can whip up a fine storm as on the swampy Papermill Man and the muscular title song where White is particularly impressive on guitar, his slide snaking throughout the song over the robust acoustic picking. They’re equally able to sit back and let the song ride out, nimbly picking the melody on To Get By or allowing Holcombe the spotlight on the spare September, a sombre bowed double bass the only accompaniment to his guitar playing and voice.
Be it a snarling blues tune or a sunny folk like lilt Holcombe’s word’s light up the songs. He mentions McMurtry and Cormac, presumably Larry and McCarthy respectively, in his lyrics and there are arresting lines in all of the songs here. He spits out the words, “fuckin’ damn frackin’ and backroom stabbin’ knocks me down on my knees” on Don’t Play Around while on Another Black Hole he sings, “the past has a smell and a one way ticket to leave you standing still.” Leavin’ Anna opens with the fine couplet “The Florida sunshine baked my bones All my life I been cold. Bronchitis, Winston cigarettes, I layed in bed alone.”
So, another excellent collection and the good news is that Holcombe is touring the UK and Ireland in May to promote the album with a Glasgow show included.
https://paulkerr.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/malcolm-holcombe-another-black-hole-proper-records/
https://www.facebook.com/BlabbernSmoke/
https://twitter.com/PaulKBlabber
Folking.com - February 8th 2016
MALCOLM HOLCOMBE – Another Black Hole (Gypsy Eyes Music)
Having released The RCA Sessions retrospective re-recordings last year, Holcombe makes a swift return with a 10 song set of brand new material, recorded in Nashville with regular collaborators Jared Tyler (dobro, baritone guitar, banjo, mandolin), Dave Roe (bass), Ken Coomer (drums), swamp legend Tony Joe White (electric guitar), drumitar inventor Future Man and Drea Merritt (harmony). The voice is sounding increasingly gummy these days, the ‘sh’ of the sibilances making you wonder whether he might need a set of dentures, but that just compounds the lived in quality of his singing and songwriting.
‘Sweet Georgia’ kicks things off with banjo and string bass riding a relaxed rolling rhythm that’s rather in contrast lyrics about small town darkness, parental abandonment and cheap thin walls with cobweb corners. That edge also seeps into the swamp blues ‘Another Black Hole’, White’s slide guitar underscoring the air of menace and life in the city’s underbelly. However, while ‘To Get By’ continues the theme of scraping by and making do, musically – and in Holcombe’s phrasing – it comes over like one of Guy Clark’s good time strums. On the other hand, it’s early Kristofferson who comes to mind with ‘Heidelberg Blues’ where wartime images of bombs and ruins are at odds with the fact that the town was never targeted by air raids, though memories of the many souls who “will never know springtime once again” does remind that it was from here that many hundreds of Jews were sent to concentration camps.
With the line about “California wanna be’s feedin’ the famine in my backyard”, the loping, throaty semi-spoken ‘Don’t Play Around’ returns us to America’s urban recession and inequality and things don’t much lighten up on the rest of the album, either. The choppy “Someone Missing” talks of volatile relationships and “the bumpy ride way outta of town”, the strut-rocking blues ‘Papermill Man’ delineates a life of the daily grind for “a dollar a day” as you ask “do you live to eat, do you eat to live” while the “damn Vanderbilts hold the keys to the city” and the spoken, acoustic picked ‘September’ talks of loss and how “the hearts of the dead leave you empty”.
It ends on, if anything, even darker notes. ‘Leavin’ Anna’ (which references Cormac McCarthy, just as ‘Don’t Play Around’ name checked Larry McMurtry) recalls the Great Depression where working men “travelled where the money was good” at the cost of not having “a soul I can call a friend when darkness settles in” before ending on images of floods and drownings. And, finally, comes ‘Way Behind’, a song of loss (“a precious tiny hand holdin’ on and turnin’ cold”), guilt (“the neighbors all remember the fancy funeral homes I never set foot in to comfort anyone”) and the need for mercy and redemption “when shadows follow clouds too heavy with my tears.” Don’t come here looking for “happy go lucky”, as he says on the title track, that ain’t his “set o’ wheels”; but if you want raw hurt and blackened despair then this is your ride along.
North East Music Monthly - February 3, 2016
This is the 14th studio album from Malcolm Holcombe and it’s clear after one listen to his gravelly baritone voice that he has served his time out on the highway of life. Last year he put out a gripping retrospective, ’The RCA Sessions’, with dramatic re-recordings of some of his better known songs alongside a group of brilliant musicians that reminded us all what a unique talent he remains. This new album was produced by Grammy-winning producer and engineer Ray Kennedy and Brian Brinkerhoff. ’Another Black Hole’ features Holcombe’s trademark rasping vocals and bright, percussive guitar accentuating his insightful lyrics. It was recorded at Room & Board Studios in Nashville, and the 10-song set features longtime musical compatriots including Jared Tyler (dobro, baritone guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmony vocals), Dave Roe (upright and electric bass), Ken Coomer (drums and percussion), Tony Joe White (electric guitar), Future Man (percussion) and Drea Merritt (vocal harmony).
The album kicks off in fine style with ‘Sweet Georgia’ with Malcolm’s unique voice to the fore and the musicians kicking up a quiet storm behind him with a strutting banjo and a string bass that powers things along and a dobro cutting through. It has a wonderful relaxed groove that never out stays its welcome, in short its a perfect opener with a terrific summery vibe. That’s quickly followed by the slower paced title track ‘Another Black Hole’ that has the impressive slide guitar of Tony Joe White threading a dangerous path through it (Mr White wrote ‘Polk Salad Annie’ covered by Elvis Presley fact fans). It sounds menacing and spooky with the female vocal providing a distant banshee wail that rolls through the chorus making it an early highlight. The musicians here are wonderful and the sound is clear and true.’To Get By’ is a song about struggling through the mundanities of life on a shoe string and gets my vote for simply mentioning a ‘fridgidaire’ and using the phrase “high falutin'”. The guitar chimes and there’s a prominent mandolin sprucing things up alongside, as ever, Malcolm’s croaking weather beaten voice.
The course for the album is pretty much set by this third tune but it’s all high class stuff and if you like your country with a touch of the rough edges of Kris Kristofferson’s cowboy outlaw material then you’ll find much to enjoy here. Holcombe has a keen ear to twist the odd phrase that gives it an edge you don’t hear that often. It’s never overdone and the band are constantly superb, possessing some of the oddness that Tom Waits’ musicians add to his records though, perhaps, in a slightly more mainstream way. ‘Papermill Man’ rocks along nicely and again features Tony Joe White on scintillating steamy slide guitar. It also features the visionary percussionist Futureman, also known as Roy Wooten, inventor of the drumitar, who lends percussion on this and several other cuts. Drea Merritt drops by to sing sweet harmonies across the album as well. In ‘Leavin’ Anna’ Holcombe croons “A working man’s a working man/ Makes the flowers grow.” The labourers, the displaced, the papermill worker, the man who spends “nickels and dimes like hundred dollar bills,” these are Malcolm Holcombe’s people and the ones who live in his songs.
Perhaps what makes this album stand out is the sheer quality of the songs and the quality musicians alongside Holcombe’s lived-in voice that drips with world weary melancholia as he looks back over shattered lives and old memories, but it makes a potent stew that’s well worth getting a taste for and, if you are a novice, there’s a veritable feast of a back catalogue to sample after this. Go and eat at his table!
You can see Malcolm Holcombe live at Cluny, Newcastle on 19th May 2016
http://nemm.org.uk/magazine/roots/roots-review/another-black-hole-malcolm-holcombe/
Music-news.com - review (5 stars) - January 2016
Malcolm Holcombe
Another Black Hole
Gypsy Eyes (label) - 19 February 2016 (released)
Holcombe is one of those names that I look out for and he never fails to deliver. This is his 14th album and every time I go through it I come away with a little more appreciation of his songwriting and guitar playing, all buried under that voice, rasping and breathy and sounding as though he had smoked a million cigarettes – this week.
He is a storyteller and all of the 10 tracks give you a picture of another piece of North Carolina life, not easy and never as simple as you first imagine and I must admit that you begin to get the mood of the song before understanding the theme but I also found myself wanting to get deeper into his music as the album went on.
All of the 10 songs here were written by Holcombe but he is aided by some stellar musicians in Jared Tyler (guitar, mandolin, banjo, dobro), David Roe (bass) & Ken Coomer (drums) while Tony Joe White plays on a number of the tracks, Ray Wooten adds percussion and Drea Merritt sings harmonies on a few. White’s guitar on ‘Papermill Man’ is stunning.
The songs all talk to the hardships of life but they also show that there is redemption to be found in 40 years hard work. He sings about labourers, men who work on the paper mills, men who are displaced by the march of technology or mortgages and his music backs up the tales in his lyrics.
I would say that there are only a few in the roots/Americana field that I would grab as soon as they are available but Malcolm Holcombe is one of the very best.
If he is only ever remembered for one song then it should be ‘September’ which is so dark and eerie that it is impossible to listen to only once – in my opinion it should be up there as one of the songs of the year.