Malcolm Holcombe scrollerFrom close up you can see that Malcolm Holcombe’s life has been an eventful journey. While he’s offstage he looks frail, tired and just about holding things together; when he picks up a guitar and sits in front of a microphone, there’s a complete transformation. It’s impossible to tell if he’s just conserving all of his energy for those two forty-five minute slots or there’s some mojo that he can only call on while he’s playing and singing, illuminating him from within and creating an almost impossible level of intensity. Even the way he attacks the opening set, running songs into each other without a pause of even a fraction of a second to allow a bit of audience appreciation has the feel of a man on a mission. It’s powerful, intense and unpredictable but, like great art, it isn’t always comfortable.

On this tour, Malcolm has been joined by slide resonator player Jared Tyler, whose pure clear harmonies contrast perfectly with Malcolm’s forty-Marlboro-a-day, rusty razor wire baritone. His slide playing creates fills and additional backing for Malcolm’s style of picking and thumb-strumming; it’s a really effective combination of two voices and two instruments. The onstage chat between songs is inconsequential, bordering on random, but the audience isn’t there to hear chat; they want to hear the songs.

The focus is on the latest album, “Another Black Hole” with more than half of the album’s songs featuring on the night. The title track, “Sweet Georgia”, “Way Behind”, and “Leavin’ Anna” all get an enthusiastic response, but the biggest cheer of the night is for the storming “Papermill Man” towards the end of the first set. There’s a fair amount of older material as well, including “Sparrows and Sparrows”, “Down the River” and “Savannah Blues” (featuring some lovely ebow guitar from Jared) and even a version of the Maura O’Connell song “A Far Cry”. It’s a great bunch of songs and the new material is as good as anything he’s ever done.

If you’ve heard any of the songs before you can guess that Malcolm’s a man who’s had battles with his demons and it’s difficult to say who won (maybe he’ll be happy to last the full fifteen rounds). At times onstage he’s struggling for breath and you’re just willing him to make it to the end of the song, never mind the evening, but there’s a fire burning inside that won’t be easily quenched. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but Malcolm Holcombe live is an experience you won’t forget in a hurry.

 

Another Black Hole scrollerIt’s just over six months since Malcolm Holcombe’s last album “The RCA Sessions” was released, so he’s obviously not spinning his wheels at the moment. “The RCA Sessions” was a retrospective with a twist, while “Another Black Hole” is ten new songs in the inimitable Malcolm Holcombe style. If your idea of a great voice is the kind of sanitised autotuned pap that you hear all over the radio, then we’d better say goodbye right here. Malcolm Holcombe has a voice that’s full of rugged character, matching the themes of his songs to perfection. As he sings in the title song, ‘The radio plays for the happy go lucky, that ain’t my set o’ wheels’.

Throughout “Another Black Hole”, most of the usual collaborators are present, including Jared Tyler, David Roe and Ken Coomer and there are a couple of guest appearances from the legendary Tony Joe White, notably on the album’s rockiest song “Papermill Man”, which combines the themes of nostalgia and life at the bottom of the ladder that run through the album with a raucous, rambunctious musical romp.

The language and imagery are more measured, but this album reminds me of Springsteen’s “Wrecking Ball”, contrasting the Carveresque characters of the songs with the ‘suits and ties in the cubicles’ (“To Get By”) and the Vanderbilts who ‘hold the keys to the city’ (“Papermill Man”). If there was any doubt about where Malcolm Holcombe’s sympathies lie, “Don’t Play Around” nails it with the line ‘fuckin’ damn frackin’ and backroom stabbin’ knocks me down on my knees’. This is the ordinary, everyday Joe sitting in a bar and venting his anger over a beer before going outside to smoke a cigarette (and he makes it clear where that highway’s always going to end).

Malcolm’s voice may be a taste that you need to acquire, but the songs on “Another Black Hole” are beautifully-crafted vignettes of American life on the other side of the tracks, just out east of Eden. The playing’s perfect throughout, matching the music to the lyrical themes, without ever becoming overcooked. What more do you need?

Out now on Gypsy Eyes Music.