Malcolm Holcombe - Bits and Pieces
by Martin Anderson, WNCW-FM
Malcolm Holcombe is a survivor. Most recently, a cancer survivor, so it’s a real gift to have this, his 18th album of brilliant vignettes and expressive musicianship. Shortly after his diagnosis in 2022, he and Jared Tyler decided to get these songs recorded, just the two of them, not knowing what the future held in store for them. To musicians, giving life to new songs can feel as critical as life’s most basic needs. If a completed album can come from it, all the better.
He’s a survivor of other struggles, too: ones that claim the lives of folks half his age. There are the self-inflicted ones, and the ones inflicted upon us by, well, the unpredictable world that he describes, unfiltered. Greed, hatred, inexplicable injustice… Malcolm helps us wrestle with them, as he has done for maybe a few lifetimes now. As he sings in “Fill These Shoes”, “People get murdered for no reason / Some give up their lives so others keep breathin'.” Through it all, we are blessed to have him among us.
Jared Tyler is, as RB Morris has called him, the musical shadow of Malcolm: able to anticipate his next moves, predict what’s needed when, and provide just the right embellishment and backbone on harmonies, guitars, mandola, dobro, banjo, etc. (As I write this, the music world is reflecting upon the recent passing of David Lindley, who provided the kind of support to Jackson Browne and others that Jared has done for Malcolm since 1999. Let this be a reminder, to all of us, to appreciate and support those who excel so well at backing up our favorite headliners, yet rarely receive the credit they deserve.) Jared also produced this album, along with Brian Brinkerhoff. No one can fully get inside the musical mind of the great Malcolm Holcombe, but Jared comes as close as anyone ever could.
Let me repeat part of that again: no one can fully get inside the musical mind of the great Malcolm Holcombe. You can memorize his lyrics, you can witness the awe and power and transcendent experience of his live performances, but you still won’t be absolutely certain that you see exactly what he’s seeing. And that’s but one of his many attributes. One that has perhaps made contemporaries like Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Steve & Justin Townes Earle, and Iris DeMent fans of his.
Yes, he’s a favorite among many songwriters in Nashville and beyond. But to those of us who live in Western North Carolina, he’s our friend and neighbor who bestows upon others whenever he can, and is part of an incredibly fertile local music scene. Born in Weaverville (1955) and residing in Swannanoa, two small towns outside Asheville, he spent a bit of time living in Nashville, making a major label record that didn’t get nearly enough of the attention it deserved, which only affirmed that his true home is ‘round here. He and Jared chose Asheville’s mother church of music studios, Echo Mountain, to record this one. From his frequent visits to nearby WNCW, for some of the most unique live interviews ever, we’ve learned to listen for his many nuggets of wisdom he’ll spontaneously impart upon us: proverbs you never knew, or sayings he seemingly just created out of thin air. “Malcolmisms”, we call them. See him live, including his many shed show videos (cancer treatments notwithstanding) that helped many of us get through the pandemic, and you’ll hear them between songs. And of course Bits and Pieces of his songs are Malcolmisms, too. Sage advice like “You gotta butter your bread on the right side / Don't whistle at the women 'round here / that corn fed bible belt mama's gotta skillet made for your head” (“Happy Wonderland”.)“ “It's an ev'ry day battle wakin’ up in the mornin'...Lock the doors and the windows / turn the music up louder” (“The Wind Doesn’t Know You”.) And there are cautionary tales: “The hypocrites of poisoned concrete grow taller in their clay feet” (“Bring To Fly”) “You can make a silk purse from an ol’ sow's ear / You can polish a turd with some elbow grease. / There's a flim-flam floozy full o' booze and boobies / I know I been there all over again” (“I Been There”.)
Malcolm Holcombe: singer, songwriter, survivor. He survives thanks in part to the fire and passion and conscience that you witness in his craft. “I will not hide from the words of justice / I will not join the cries of liars / I will not keep my heart from climbing from the dust I swallowed behind. …Great spirit lift me from despair / to your bosom sweet and fair” (“Conscience of Man”)
Martin Anderson, WNCW-FM
Malcolm Holcombe - Tricks of the Trade-
by RB Morris
Malcolm Holcombe. Just say that name over a few times in your head. I first heard it sometime in the mid 90’s in Nashville when a friend said, "RB, there's a guy you really got to see, Malcolm Holcombe." So, I went to the old original Sutler to check out a Malcolm Holcombe show. Malcolm and his little combo were in mid-flow when I got there and I was stopped in my tracks just past the door. In a music city full of singer songwriters, I hadn’t heard anything like this guy, there or anywhere else. Malcolm was a study, head to toe and heart to mind. He was definitely possessed of the work at hand, what you'd call in a zone. He had a powerful and unusual voice, and an urgent and honest expression. What he said you could feel on a personal level if not completely discern all the words. I listened close as the songs poured out of him, one song turning into the next, Malcolm hardly taking a breath between, not playing for or waiting on applause. The players rolled with him. I didn’t know the bass man, but Kenny Malone was on drums and Jelly Roll Johnson on mouth harp. Malcolm sat in a chair in the midst of them reeling and rocking and sometimes seeming to levitate. He played an acoustic guitar with no flat pic or finger pics, sometimes tapping or banging on it like he was knocking on the door of the song. His right hand like no other I’d ever seen flail on a flattop. The guitar was alive and at the mercy of the man who held it, and when his voice rang out above it, telling its tale, well it was a wonder to behold.
I returned to the hills of East Tenn with this news to tell my friend Iron John Webb, who as much as anyone had set me to taking that ride to music city on a weekly basis. I reported, "I finally saw somebody totally unique in Nashville, a fellow named Malcolm Holcombe." To which he replied, "You mean little Malcolm, why I've known him for over 20 years." Next time I saw Malcolm was back at the Sutler, this time sitting at a corner table. I introduced myself, letting him know we had a mutual friend. That connection to Iron John was an immediate entry into Malcolm’s world, a welcome mat laid down. They were friends from years before in western North Carolina where Malcolm hails from. After this, I kept up with Malcolm when and where I could, and followed his music, live and on record. Along the way we shared some co-bills, in-the-rounds, and some road traveling.
To know Malcolm is to know stories, the stories he tells in his songs and the stories people love to tell about Malcolm. And Lord knows some are legendary. The story that's got my attention right now is he has a new record coming out, TRICKS OF THE TRADE. Malcolm’s an amazing recording artist in that he’s able to catch the fire of his live performances in the studio. He’s put out 16 or more records since the mid-90’s, but since 2015 he’s put out six full length albums and a separate series of singles. He’s had a big flow going hardly hampered by near death health crises, or pandemics, or the verities and vicissitudes of whatever the biz is, just a steady stream of brilliant original work.
TRICKS OF THE TRADE comes at the crest of this wave, Malcolm at full throttle and surrounded by his main accomplices, Dave Roe and Jared Tyler. Malcolm’s been recording with Dave Roe since 2007, and Jared Tyler goes back even further, at least to Malcolm’s 1999 masterpiece, A HUNDRED LIES. These guys understand Malcolm and understand his music, and serve as producer and co-producer of TRICKS OF THE TRADE, along with Brian Brinkerhoff who’s been the label/producer of this late flow of Malcolm records. And the record was made at Dave Roe’s Seven Deadly Sins Studios in Nashville. You can feel them owning that atmosphere on this one.
Jared has always been like the musical shadow of Malcolm on dobro, mandolin, and vocals, but on TRICKS OF THE TRADE he has jumped on the electric guitar and muscled up the grooves of a few of these tunes. I believe Malcolm could walk right outta hell with Dave Roe playing bass beside him and the devil'd be dancing and wouldn’t even know they were gone. I saw Dave and Jared play with Malcolm through a thunderstorm flood and tornado one night when I personally feared for my family's life and had no escape. By some miracle we all survived. Somebody must have parted the seas.
To keep it in the blood, Dave Roe’s son, Jerry Roe, sits behind the drums for most of the songs. Miles McPherson takes the rest. Along with Malcolm, Dave, and Jared, that’s the band. Ron de la Vega makes a special cello appearance on lenora cynthia. Malcolm has on recent records received some wonderful vocal support from Iris Dement and Greg Brown, and here Mary Gauthier and Jaimee Harris add their voices to a number of songs, including higher ground, to bring home its reckoning: I got freedom to choose/I got freedom to lose/I got freedom to choose/higher ground.
Malcolm comes of many musical traditions, folk, country, rock, bluegrass, blues, gospel, it’s all there somewhere rolled into a mix of his own declaration. And much has been made of Malcolm’s western NC mountain and hill country roots that seem to orient and flavor his rendering. It’s all of that, but more as well. I’m not sure what his bloodlines might reveal in the way of clues, but I’ve known a lot of ole boys from that part of the country, musicians and otherwise, and none of them bear the same qualities of perspective and insight that Malcolm offers in words and music.
There’s mystery in Malcolm’s songs like there’s mystery in life. Everything’s not spelled out, the songs take their own shape as much as being worked to a form. Side stage at one of our Liberty Circus benefit concerts listening to Malcolm play his set, David Olney and I both affirmed that Malcolm’s lyrics are often like reading Rimbaud in translation. A certain light shines through his words even when you don’t follow all of his meaning, a kind of endowment of meaning that’s given to the expression: there’s a rumble in the/paper walls/and the early morning questions fall/ from frigid winter lips/they call/into the sunlight we belong…why the tossin’ turnin’/nights/far from younger open eyes/to the aging starless skies…/she’s saving kindness to be/ strong/and into the sunlight we belong.
Like any songwriter, Malcolm sings universal themes. And when he sings of love it comes from a deep place as in lenora cynthia, and through his own personal visions: reach over to the mornin’/speak softly passin’ by/the prison in my head/must live and never die/the floor is hard as nails/ramshackled broken steps/I stumble in your arms/lenora cynthia. Or sometimes, like in the country song, misery loves company, he has a hard but humorous take on love, I’ve tasted and I’ve wasted/the good life that I had/my poor selfish drinking/made a rich ol man go mad…I passed out and I cried out/my God what have I done/she’s gone… I oughtta be on tv/with a guitar strummin’/smile/cause misery loves/company/when the neon’s burnin’/bright.
In the end Malcolm sings foremost the plight of the poor, the lesser and oft forgotten, as in on tennessee land, or at the border where families are separated in your kin, or Appalachian poverty in damn rainy day where you learn pretty people and bossy people are better than you. He’ll let you know right away his state of affairs, it rained forty days/it rained forty nights/there’s a skunk in the well/and snakes in my mind. I gotta broken heart/fit to be tied/to a tree on the banks/of the river I cried.
The album is infused with takes on national crises and situations, but always filtered through Malcolm’s personal language and perspective. Everybody’s deal is with the money train, and good intentions and crazy man blues lets you know what’s going down on a national level. The hierarchy of the rich and powerful are never far from Malcolm’s configuring, towers of money from la/to london/your formidable foes/multiply. And he lets you know he comes from a different place, heat bill’s paid and the tv/works/good enough but my back/still hurts/bend over they gotta cure…
The title track of TRICKS OF THE TRADE lays bare the carny deceptions and illusions of the big top and connects directly to the kickoff track money train, its late verse: pt barnum said/a sucker’s born ev’ry/minute/I’m standin’ in line/cause I got a ticket/for the money train… I gotta hot tub, a bathtub/a solar powered guitar/I clean up pretty good/and I turn it up louder/for the money train. He does turn it up a little louder on this record. Malcolm rolls deep and wide and lets you know how it is with him and the world, but he always paints a picture of determination. On the last song, shaky ground, he pretty much lays it out for us, what it is and how to do:
let the rain do the job
let the rain fall on down
and wash away the walls
standin’ tall on shaky ground.
Malcolm Holcombe - Another Black Hole
by Al Maginnes
Recorded at Room & Board Studios in Nashville, TN, 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).
Born and raised in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, Holcombe is highly regarded and recognized by contemporaries in Americana music including Emmylou Harris, Wilco, Steve Earle. An “emotionally captivating” (Isthmus), performer, Holcombe has shared the stage with Merle Haggard, Richard Thompson, John Hammond, Leon Russell, Wilco and Shelby Lynne.
In the end, who can explain the secret of endurance? Why does one marriage last and another does not? Why does one song or album catch our ear while others, arguably as good, slip past us? What convinces an artist or musician to continue pursuing the craft in a time of audiences with short attention spans and diminishing financial returns?
On the eve of releasing Another Black Hole, his fourteenth album (including a duet album cut with North Carolina music legend Sam Milner back in the 80s), Malcolm Holcombe is in no mood to ponder such things. “They’re free to like it or change the CD or completely ignore it,” he says over the telephone from New Haven, CT. “It all depends on how bad their conscience is.”
Those who have paid attention to Holcombe’s music will find more of what they expect here: Holcombe’s rasping vocals and bright, percussive guitar accentuating his insightful lyrics. A few of Holcombe’s longtime musical compatriots show up to help him out, most notably Jared Tyler, who plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, dobro and offers background harmonies and rock solid rhythm section David Roe on bass and Ken Coomer on drums. Swamp pop legend Tony Joe White plays electric guitar on a number of cuts, including the hard rocking “Papermill Man,” and the visionary percussionist Futureman, also known as Roy Wooten, inventor of the drumitar, lends percussion on several cuts. Drea Merritt drops by to sing harmonies as well.
Last year, Holcombe released The RCA Sessions, a retrospective of his two decades of recordings. For most of this time, Malcolm has handled his own career from his hometown of Swannanoa, NC, a few miles down the road from Weaverville, where he was born in 1955. Another Black Hole does not indicate a change of direction for Holcombe, only a widening and deepening of the groove he has worked for most of his years playing and singing. Lyrically, the songs mingle Holcombe’s off the cuff wisdom and sharp-eyed commentary on the human condition. Without staking a political or spiritual position, Holcombe’s songs make it clear that he sees his place with those who suffer at the end of the “suits and ties in the cubicles,” as he sings in “To Get By.” But because he sees things in human terms and in the terms of survival, Holcombe heads down to “Rice’s Grocery down on Main Street/ We got credit there.”
Ray Kennedy, who has produced several of Malcolm’s albums, including Another Black Hole, says, “Malcolm Holcombe is fiercely striking every time you encounter him on or off stage. You just get sucked into his extraordinary world of the twisting of words and wisdom that come from a bottomless well. The melodies and fierce rhythms wrap his narrative into an event where you find yourself at his unique musical carnival. Then suddenly he slays you with a sweet love ballad or a sarcastic social commentary.”
In “Leavin’ Anna,” Holcombe croons “A working man’s a working man/ Makes the flowers grow.” The laborers, 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. But he is far less interested in talking about his own songs than in talking about other musicians whose names come up in the course of a conversation.
When country singing legend Don Williams is mentioned, Malcolm says, “I used to listen to that Portrait album all the time,” and asks if Williams played a couple of his more popular songs in a recent concert. He also speaks fondly of Les Paul and, later, of Keith Richards: “He’s rock and roll all day long, ain’t he?”
Recently Warren Haynes, another musician native to western North Carolina, has mentioned Malcolm’s name in interviews. Typically, Holcombe was unaware of this, but filled with praise for Haynes. “He’s a real gentleman. I’m glad to call him a friend,” he says. “He taught me how to bend a string on a guitar.”
Chances are that Another Black Hole will not be mentioned at Grammy time, but it is a strong addition to an ever-strengthening catalogue of music made by a humble craftsman in western North Carolina. “It is Malcolm’s perception of the world that make his songs hit you like a gunpowder blast. His gruff and tough delivery is a primordial power full of grit, spit and anthropomorphic expression,” says Ray Kennedy. Trends come and go. What is real is the ground beneath our feet, the sky above us, the struggle to earn a living. These are Malcolm Holcombe’s timeless subjects and the spin he puts on them makes our journey here more bearable.
On April 6, 2015, to commemorate his 20 year musical career milestone, underground folk legend Malcolm Holcombe released The RCA Sessions. The set has international digital distribution through Proper Music Group.
Spanning the years 1994 to 2014, The RCA Sessions comprises 16 cuts in a CD/DVD retrospective that includes tracks from each of his previous 10 full length albums and 1 EP. Unlike the usual anthology of original recordings, Holcombe re-recorded the selected songs at the legendary RCA Studios in Nashville, TN in the fall of 2014. Included is the live performance favorite, "Mouth Harp Man", which is exclusive to this release, as well as well as the popular tracks "Goin' Home", "Who Carried You", and a very special duet with Irish folk great, Maura O'Connell, of Holcombe's classic, "A Far Cry From Here".
The band members, who have all frequently performed with Malcolm in the studio as well as for live performances, are: Jared Tyler (dobro, electric-guitar, lap steel, vocals); David Roe Rorick ( upright bass, arco), Tammy Rogers (fiddle, mandolin, vocals), Ken Coomer (drums, percussion), Jellyroll Johnson (harmonica), and Siobhan Maher Kennedy (vocals).
To represent Holcombe's live performance range- from the intimate nature of solo acoustic, to the much lauded duo configuration with long-standing multi-instrumentalist Jared Tyler, to the energy and intensity of his full band shows- the CD/DVD set includes all of the above-mentioned musical configurations. Cut as live performances in-studio, these tracks capture the spirit of Holcombe's incendiary concert performances and timeless songwriting. As this is the first time Malcolm Holcombe has released a DVD performance, it is sure to become a much appreciated addition to both long time fans, as well as the perfect introduction for the uninitiated. The RCA Sessions is not an end, but a culmination of work that spotlights the artistic mastery of one of the most unique and irreplaceable musicians working today in the contemporary folk scene.
Photographer: John Gellman Photography
Venue: RCA Studio A, Nashville TN
Malcolm Holcombe
by Craig Havighurst
Malcolm Holcombe grew up in western North Carolina, home to some of the planet's oldest mountains and some of America's deepest musical traditions. Radio and TV fueled Malcolm's musical passions as a kid, and music became even more important after he lost both his parents relatively young.
He toured with bands and landed in Nashville, where he took up an inconspicuous station at the back of the house - the very back - at Douglas Corner, one of the city's best singer/songwriter venues. Stories began to circulate about the mysterious dishwasher with the subterranean voice and oracle-like talent. Sadly so did stories of wildly inconsistent behavior - profound sweetness crossed by bouts of stunning abrasiveness.
He flirted with an official music career. But his stunning debut album made for Geffen Records was abruptly shelved, producing melodrama that only exacerbated Malcolm's drinking and depression. A business that once had a place for complicated genius turned its back on him, and he teetered near the edge.
Moving back to the North Carolina hills proved a powerful tonic. Holcombe let in help where before he'd pushed it away. With deep faith in God and a commitment to his art, Holcombe repaired himself and his career.
And that's a pretty good nod to the effect of hearing Holcombe sing. If you've not seen him in a live setting, this is what you have to do. His presence is spooky and timeless, as one imagines it was like to see Son House or Leadbelly. No emotional stone is left unturned.
While you plan for this important experience, collect Malcolm Holcombe albums... He is cryptic, demanding, polarizing, bold, passionate and free, a combination badly needed in our time of infinite trivia. He's even more interesting for having made a remarkable journey of recovery and discovery.
Craig Havighurst, Nashville