From 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.
OK, let me say this right up front; this album isn’t for everyone, but you could say that about Tom Waits, Neil Young and Bob Dylan and it hasn’t done them any harm. Malcolm Holcombe’s voice is an acquired taste but if you already have a taste for anyone mentioned above then it wouldn’t take a lot of acquisition. It’s the voice of a man who’s lived a life and seen a lot of dark sides; it’s the voice of a man who gargles with gravel, spits sparks and tells stories of how life is, not how you think it should be. His music has roots in blues, folk and country but it’s not really any of these; it’s a strand of Americana which weaves in all of these influences without falling neatly into any of them.
“The RCA Sessions” is a retrospective with a difference. Malcolm Holcombe has picked out sixteen songs from the period 1994-2014 and re-recorded the lot live in the RCA Studios in Nashville, while filming the process for a CD/DVD package. The band for the sessions was Jared Tyler (dobro, electric guitar, lap steel and vocals), Dave Roe (upright bass and arco), Tammy Rogers (fiddle, mandolin and vocals), Ken Coomer (drums and percussion) Jelly Roll Johnson (harmonica) and Siobhan Maher-Kennedy (vocals), all regular contributors to Malcolm’s work, plus Maura O’Connell who duets on the final track, “A Far Cry from Here”.
This collection weaves its way through various instrumental settings, from the intimate Malcolm Holcombe/Jared Tyler configuration on “Doncha Miss that Water” (with a hint of Jackson Browne and David Lindley) to the full country band sound of “My Ol’ Radio”, the riff-based country rock of “To Drink the Rain” and the two songs featuring Jelly Roll Johnson’s harmonica, “Mister in Morgantown” and “Mouth Harp Man”.
There’s a melancholy lyrical feel to most of the album, from the mournful mood of “The Empty Jar” to the world-weary nostalgia of “Early Mornin’” and “Goin’ Home”. There’s a bit of social comment (“Down the River”) and even a parable (“I Call the Shots”), showing a wide range of subjects and lyrical styles. The imagery is never ornate or flowery; this is the poetry of everyday (and sometimes bone-grindingly hard) life; warts ‘n’ all with no airbrushing, but also incredibly powerful, honest and moving.
The songs on “The RCA Sessions”, selected from the work of twenty years, are strong, potent and evocative and paint a picture of someone who’s lived a life and just managed to survive it. At times you feel he squeezes so much of himself into the songs, you wonder if he can make it to the bridge, never mind to the end of the song, but you could often say that about Neil Young, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan as well. Anyway, Lucinda Williams and Justin Townes Earle are fans and I’m sure their recommendation counts for a lot more than mine.
“The RCA Sessions” is out on June 22 on Singular Recordings/Gypsy Eyes Music.
