light and compelling (“Bootstraps”). It could be the right form for an album that represents a sort of further rebirth for the North Carolina musician. “Further” because his life was a cyclical flow of redemptions (alcohol, etc.) which, punctually (and fortunately), enveloped the albums that followed one another with a surprising cadence. “Rebirth” because this time Malcolm fought against cancer and only with his guitar could he tell us about his new life, the new stage that his vision has reached (“Fill those shoes”): always with very little candor and just a few asides of cordiality, but with extraordinary melodies which, like the sharp edges of his voice, would satisfy even the most refined. Each song seems like an epiphany: each step of the story seems driven by a different force, which takes shape within perfect harmonizations ("Another sweet deal") - perfectly calibrated to his timbre of voice - and barely mentioned arrangements ("Bring to fly" ).https://www.blogfoolk.com/2023/08/malcom-holcombe-bits-pieces-proper.html
Malcom Holcombe – Bits & Pieces (Proper Music/Need to Know, 2023)
August 20, 2023
It all comes back to the core with Malcom Holcombe, a revival of the American folk-country scene, who has always gone his own way. Rarefied, hoarse voice, narrator's vocal approach, with incredible phonetic effort, full and clear guitar, supported with the tenacity of those who cannot do without it, of those who live for that thing: reporting their visions in songs, facing others with singing and telling your whole truth (“Bits and Pieces”). The grace within which all this is framed, however, is something else. And the grace of Hocombe – born in 1955 and with around twenty albums, starting from the mid-nineties – is what can be recognized in the fundamental details. Not only in the timbre of the voice - always strained and at the limit, which is now a distinctive sign to say the least - but in the guitar style: or rather, in its raw, basic, remote and slightly different sound (tending towards lameness), free of any artifice, even the most banal, stuck on fingerpicking to orchestrate the structure of his story (“Happy Wonderland”). Listening to it is like imagining a form in which only the voice and the string mix, like a tangle of threads, a composite sign whose deep groove is perceived but which can only be understood by reading it (“Bring to fly”). To tell the truth, “Bits & Pieces”, composed of thirteen extraordinary songs, includes several instruments. And this is an interesting aspect that proves what we were talking about earlier: each instrument has the function of confirming that particular composition, that indissoluble matrix that draws every reflection, every drop of blood from the two primary elements (“Another sweet deal”). Playing almost all the instruments (dobro, harmonica, mandola, banjo) is "the music shadow of Malcom", i.e. the producer of this album Jared Tyler, who has collaborated with Holcombe since 1999 and can boast (assuming he is interested) acquaintances highly respected in the American folk scene, having collaborated with Nickel Creek, Wilco, John Hammond, Shelby Lynne and several others. It is said that he is able to understand – he and a few others – what Holcombe really has in his head and, therefore, to best interpret its resonances, harmonies and rhythms. Brian Brinkerhof produced the album together with him, and managed to bring Malcom's story closer – albeit very delicately – to a more American roots area (“Rubbin' Elbow”). In general - and after careful reflection - this slide towards slightly softer atmospheres is not unpleasant: the movement is delicate and has almost exclusively a positive effect, which alternates with great respect the above-mentioned grace (naked and raw, primordial, powerful and enthralling ) with a slightly more comprehensible, easier beauty: perhaps lighter and more compelling (“Bootstraps”). It could be the right form for an album that represents a sort of further rebirth for the North Carolina musician. “Further” because his life was a cyclical flow of redemptions (alcohol etc.) which, punctually (and fortunately), they enveloped the albums that followed one another with a surprising cadence. “Rebirth” because this time Malcom fought against cancer and only with his guitar could he tell us about his new life, the new stage that his vision has reached (“Fill those shoes”): always with very little candor and just a few asides of cordiality, but with extraordinary melodies which, like the sharp edges of his voice, would satisfy even the most refined. Each song seems like an epiphany: each step of the story seems driven by a different force, which takes shape within perfect harmonizations ("Another sweet deal") - perfectly calibrated to his timbre of voice - and barely hinted at arrangements ("Bring to fly" ).
https://takeeffectreviews.com/october-2023-3/2023/10/26/malcombe-holcombe
TAKE EFFECT
MALCOLM HOLCOMBE
October 26, 2023
Bits & Pieces
Proper, 2023
8/10
The cancer survivor Malcolm Holcombe returns with an 18 album of his expressive and heartfelt song craft, where the multi-instrumentalist and producer Jared Tyler lends a hand for the 13 genuine tunes.
The title track opens with Holcombe’s warm acoustic guitar and raw vocals that are complemented by Tyler’s backing vocals amid the dark folk ideas, and “Fill Those Shoes” follows with Tyler’s soft drumming adding much beauty to the vivid storytelling from Holcombe.
Close to the middle, “Conscience Man” brings a hint of the blues thanks to the mesmerizing guitar and rugged climate, while “Happy Wonderland” benefits much from the percussion and vocal harmonies that make this lush delivery the album’s best.
Near to the end, “Rubbin’ Elbows” is equal parts grit and melody in the agile folk demeanor, and “Bring To Fly” exits with Holcombe’s conversational approach alongside the meticulous guitar and slight twang.
Quite possibly your favorite songwriter’s favorite songwriter, Holcombe has received praise from Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, and Steve Earle, to name a few, and anyone willing to listen to his sage-like and timeless songwriting will certainly see why he is so revered.
Travels well with: The Rifters- The Enchanted World; Kenny Shore- Time Stands Still
https://www.facebook.com/groups/terrascope/
Whilst we are in great Americana territory Malcolm Holcombe has also released a slow burner of an album, entitled “Bits & Pieces”, put out on Proper/Need to Know music. It came out in June. Malcolm is a particularly fine singer songwriter, with a fairly gruff voice, his songs are visceral and often cut to the bone, should you need an example you could equate him to a more Americana nuanced Tom Waits. He has Jared Tyler producing along with Brian Brinkerhoff. Jared plays everything on the album, along with Malcolm playing acoustic guitar and singing. Jared seems to be a perfect match for him, pretty much like David Lindley was for Jackson Browne and together they make a formidable pair. www.malcolmholcombe.com
https://www.nodepression.com/founders-keepers-drive-by-truckers-malcolm-holcombe-and-others-doing-the-damn-work/
That Western North Carolina’s Malcolm Holcombe has survived to release his 18th album argues for a different kind of grit. Everything has conspired to silence Holcombe, from an early major label deal to substance abuse to cancer. It’s in his voice, all of that, and even more eloquently voiced in the sounds he makes between words. Holcombe and longtime accomplice Jared Taylor captured Bits & Pieces in the spaces around Holcombe’s cancer diagnosis. Holcombe sings — still; always — in a lazy growl that almost masks the spare precision of his words and the fierce, fragile calm behind them. When he riffs on “Jesus Loves the Little Children” in “Conscience of Man,” the whiskey rasp of his voice can’t help but hint at menace, but it’s clearly a genuine impulse, as the gospel chorus that follows underscores. “The Wind Doesn’t Know You” is an exquisite elegy, while “Another Sweet Deal” and the title track offer a rearview memory painting. Taylor’s production throughout has an unerring instinct for unobtrusively anchoring Holcombe’s songs with just the right fills and frolics.
https://youtu.be/GB0L0uz_X2k
http://www.whisperinandhollerin.com/reviews/review.asp?id=16591
Malcolm Holcombe - 'Bits & Pieces' - review (8/10) - Whisperin and Hollerin - August 2023
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Review: 'HOLCOMBE, MALCOLM'
'Bits & Pieces'
- Label: 'Proper Music / Need To Know'
- Genre: 'Folk' - Release Date: '23rd June 2023'
Our Rating:
Since 2012, this is now the 7th album of Malcolm Holcombe’s I have reviewed and ‘Bits & Pieces’ is his 18th album overall. Authentic is the adjective I have used most and it applies again for his latest release.
The album’s title suggests this baker’s dozen are orphan songs but they sound fully realized tunes to my ear. Thinking longer and harder was, however, a luxury Holcombe could ill afford. A cancer diagnosis in 2022 forced him and musical soulmate Jared Tyler to get these songs recorded sooner rather than later.
Tyler provides backing on harmonies, guitars, mandola, dobro and banjo. He also co-produced the album with Brian Brinkerhoff in North Carolina.
Life is depicted as an “everyday battle” that doesn’t come with a tidy plan or a neat set of rules (The Wind Doesn’t Know You).
Holcombe knows full well that good fortune or bad luck are not distributed fairly. He charts existence as a lottery based on deep experience not empty speculation. On Fill These Shoes, he sings “People get murdered for no reason / Some give up their lives so others keep breathin'.”
Holcombe is more at home in a Hard Luck City than a Happy Wonderland but he doesn’t dwell on negativity for the sake of it. In Conscience of Man he sings: “Great spirit lift me from despair / to your bosom sweet and fair.”.
This album may, in the words of Another Sweet Deal, be “one more for the road” but Holcombe is nothing if not a survivor so I’ll be waiting hopefully for a follow up.
Malcolm Holcombe’s website
author: Martin Raybould
http://www.bluesinbritain.org/
https://spirit.rocks/2023/07/28/roots-in-august-5/
Malcolm Holcombe – Bits & Pieces
Malcolm Holcombe is a survivor. Most recently, a cancer survivor after diagnosis in 2022, he and Jared Tyler decided to get these songs for his 18th album recorded, just the two of them, not knowing what the future held. Jared provided harmonies, guitars, mandola, dobro, banjo and also produced this album, along with Brian Brinkerhoff.
The title track epitomises it all. No click track. No smooth production. Musically tight as a proverbial nut yet overflowing with natural honesty. Reality bites. Raw, to the bone, a realistic album of life with all its flaws. It’s an album of brilliant vignettes and expressive musicianship sung by a voice that’s dusty and life-worn, but gruff and tough enough to handle anything. Malcolm Holcombe is a singer, songwriter, survivor. He survives thanks in part to the fire and passion and conscience that we witness in his craft. Real.
http://www.thealternateroot.com/all-reviews/malcom-holcombe-from-the-album-bits-and-pieces
The Alternate Root
All Reviews Archive
Brought To You From Our Alt Root Writers
MALCOM HOLCOMBE (FROM THE ALBUM BITS AND PIECES
July 29, 2023
Malcom Holcombe (from the album Bits and Pieces
Malcom Holcombe (from the album Bits and Pieces on Gypsy Eyes Music/Singular Recordings) (by Lee Zimmerman)
Listeners might be forgiven for thinking Malcolm Holcombe is a bit of a curmudgeon. His music is unapologetically rough around the edges and his songs make no attempt to share any softer sentiments. Take this sample lyric from “Bring to Fly”, one of the 15 stark songs from his modestly titled new album:
‘The hypocrites of poisoned concrete
Grow taller in their clay feet…
The masterminds of the misdeeds
The wolves among us so many sheep
Stay hungry never satisfied
Slaughter poor and blinded eyes’
So, Mr. Holcombe, what do you really think?
Of course, one has to give due credit to any artist who dares speak his mind, and Malcolm Holcombe has always had a penchant for doing just that. It’s a habit he’s nurtured over the course of more than a dozen albums, resulting in a sound and style that makes him akin to some sort of modern journeyman. In a way, he’s a reincarnation of the prototypical old school folk troubadour, an artist who needs little more than a battered guitar and a meaningful message to get his point across. In this case, he opts for the sole accompaniment of multi-instrumentalist and producer Jared Tyler, but his rugged, rustic ramblings aren’t deterred by the lack of any big screen scenario. His gruff vocals get the point across, mostly bringing to mind early Bob Dylan in his early Folk phase. Song after song bears out those similarities, with “Fill Those Shoes”, “Hard Luck City”, “The Wind Doesn’t Know You”, “Bootstraps”, and “I’ve Been There”, standouts in a series of hard luck stories, each bolstered by uncompromising intent and relentless recrimination.
Granted, there’s nothing particularly pretty about these melodies, but while the arrangements are taut as opposed to tender, the decided determination never ebbs. Bits and Pieces is nothing less than a demonstrative set of songs, all of which are clearly intwined. (by Lee Zimmerman)
Listen and buy the music of Malcolm Holcombe from AMAZON
Please go to the Malcolm Holcombe website for more purchase and artist information
https://www.lonesomehighway.com/music-reviews/2023/7/24/new-album-reviews
Malcolm Holcombe Bits and Pieces Proper
North Carolina native and prolific songwriter Malcolm Holcombe has seen it all and done more than most in a career that has spanned close on thirty years. His craft has been lauded by many of his contemporaries in Roots music circles and comparisons have been made to both John Prine and Tom Waits. Of course, there is really nobody to compare to the unique spirit and talent of Malcolm Holcombe. When it comes to authenticity then this man is the real deal. Who was it that said “comparison is the thief of joy,” - perhaps Teddy Roosevelt was onto something back then?
On this new release, Holcombe is joined by multi-instrumentalist Jared Taylor who has been a regular collaborator over the years, playing regularly with him and producing a number of prior albums. Holcombe sings with an authentic rasp in his vocal, as if he’s so fed up with all that he sees surrounding him, that he just has to spit out the bad taste in his mouth. These thirteen songs were written during 2021 and they portray various aspects of his world view, often portrayed through characters in different life situations. The power of observation in something that Holcombe has in common with all the great songwriters and if there is a little bit of himself in many of the song characters, then all the better for the perspective.
Holcombe sings of people on the edge of normality, the fringe of what counts as acceptable; the dealers, gamblers, hustlers, thieves and down-at-heels in society. Holcombe also trains his sights on the powerful enclaves that dictate the lives of those who survive by doing what they must; the politicians and businessmen whose only god is avarice and the accumulation of wealth. In this sense, he represents a modern-day Woody Guthrie, with a righteous anger and a wake-up call to those who deal in causing misery.
On Conscience Of Man he declares ‘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.’ Equally, on Rubbin’ Elbows he takes a swipe at social climbers and those who seek entry to the club of easy living, ‘Woncha grease my palm, Slap me on the back, Meet my younger sister and kiss my ass.’
On this album, Holcombe’s eighteenth, I have the impression that the process is every bit as important as the end product. In 2022, Holcombe was diagnosed with cancer and he decided to enter the studio with his friend to get these songs recorded. Holcombe was at home in Echo Mountain studios, Ashville, NC and the therapeutic gains for the musicians in the playing process no doubt brought a sense of acceptance and calm to the battle faced against illness. The song, The Wind Doesn’t Know You, touches on the concept of time passing with the lines, ‘It’s an everyday battle wakin’ up in the morning, With the rattle and the hustles of the cars, and the warnin’ of the pressure every measure of the clock ticking forward.’
The interplay between the two musicians is incredible and really kicks up a storm when they are in full flight. There is great clarity and space on the production, which Jared Taylor shared with Brian Brinkerhoff. Holcombe has a fascinating guitar style that mixes fingerstyle picking with percussive elements that colour the playing. If you check out some of his Shed Shows on social media then you will be able to witness the true essence of this national treasure. He even plays some of these shows with a visible nasal cannula, attached to a mobile oxygen canister, while he was still in recovery. Happily, the news is positive and Holcombe is now in remission.
This is acoustic blues, mixed with plenty of roots leanings in folk music traditions and beyond. Long may this gritty survivor keep holding up a mirror to modern society and maintain a necessary presence in our lives. Do yourself a favour and purchase this essential and vibrant music.
Review by Paul McGee
http://www.rock-n-reel.co.uk/
Malcolm Holcombe - 'Bits & Pieces' - review (4 stars) - Music Riot - 29.6.23
‘Bits & Pieces’ – Malcolm Holcombe
It’s easy to see why Malcolm Holcombe is admired by so many songwriters. His lyrics are economical, perhaps even terse at times, conveying ideas and stories by hints and allusions rather than as a simple narrative and creating rhythmic textures with his finger-picking style. The album’s a two-hander with Jared Tyler supplying tonal colours to Malcolm’s songs (as he has for nearly twenty-five years) with a wide variety of instruments including dobro, lap steel, baritone guitar, tenor banjo, mandola and percussion. Malcolm’s finger-picking and Jared’s backing and fills give the songs a rhythmic complexity that emphasises the starkness of the lyrics.
‘Bits & Pieces’ is an album where Malcolm takes a long look in the rear-view mirror at the times he’s enjoyed and the times he’s survived; there’s a reason for this. Malcolm was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 and decided to record these songs straight away because of the uncertain future. He’s now a cancer survivor as well and this is referenced in ‘Bootstraps’ with the lines “blood bleedin’ in your stomach, saline flowin’ your veins”. Malcolm’s lyrics can be oblique, leaving you wondering whether you’re chasing the right reference, although it’s clear that ‘Eye of the Needle’, ‘Rubbin’ Elbows’ (with the COVID reference) and ‘Another Sweet Deal’ are talking about hucksters and grifters and possibly even the Trump family. You can find a few religious references in there as well, in ‘Eye of the Needle’ mentioned above, ‘Bring to Fly’ and ‘Conscience of Man’. Sometimes you need to delve a little to unpick the references, but it’s always worth the effort.
There are a couple of standouts for me and they’re side by side on the album. ‘The Wind Doesn’t Know You’ takes a whistle-stop tour through Malcolm’s past (‘lock the doors and windows turn the music up louder, from the eighties to the nineties from the pills to the powder’) before acknowledging that in the grand scheme of things, we play a very small part. ‘Conscience of Man’ hints at the early Eagles albums in its arrangements and harmonies as it rails at the American right wing before admitting that redemption might just be possible. And the theme of redemption suffuses the album’s closer ‘Bring to Fly’ to end the album on a positive note.
If you already know Malcolm Holcombe’s work, you’ll find this a very satisfying album. If you don’t know his work, then this is a pretty good place to start.
‘Bits & Pieces’ is out now on Proper Music/Need To Know.
Malcolm Holcombe - 'Bits & Pieces' - review - Americana Roundup by Michael Hingston - Country Music People - July 2023
Malcolm Holcombe’s gruff voice has the imprint of a life of struggles. His latest album Bits And Pieces is a superb collection of Holcombe’s songwriting that was recorded shortly after the latest challenge that life presented him, a cancer diagnosis. Not knowing the future, Holcombe and regular collaborator and producer Jared Tyler recorded several songs that now form this album. Holcombe sings and plays acoustic guitar, but all the other instruments and background vocals are provided the muti-instrumental skills of Jared Tyler. Fortunately, Holcombe can now add cancer survivor to his life experiences and there is the bonus of this excellent album.
G Promo PR
UK/European Press & Radio
Contact: Geraint or Deb Jones
Malcolm Holcombe - 'Bits & Pieces' - review - Americana Roundup by Michael Hingston - Country Music People - July 2023
Malcolm Holcombe’s gruff voice has the imprint of a life of struggles. His latest album Bits And Pieces is a superb collection of Holcombe’s songwriting that was recorded shortly after the latest challenge that life presented him, a cancer diagnosis. Not knowing the future, Holcombe and regular collaborator and producer Jared Tyler recorded several songs that now form this album. Holcombe sings and plays acoustic guitar, but all the other instruments and background vocals are provided the muti-instrumental skills of Jared Tyler. Fortunately, Holcombe can now add cancer survivor to his life experiences and there is the bonus of this excellent album.
G Promo PR
UK/European Press & Radio
Contact: Geraint or Deb Jones
In the psychotic iconography of Eye Of The Needle, with the usual fingerpicking and slide jabs framing visions of assorted hardships, or an almost old-timey I've Been There, Holcombe ends up looking more and more like Frank Stanford , "the Rimbaud of the swamps", the poet from Mississippi (who committed suicide in 1978, at the age of twenty-nine, in Arkansas) who developed a mystique of solitude that made his psychedelic, enthralling verses unique and inimitable, characterized by an indomitable melancholy. Similarly, Malcolm Holcombe of Bits & Pieces seems to be the only one to possess the formula of these Midwestern werewolf tunes, murky even when they open to a (rare) moment of joy, blatantly rural even in the parentheses in which gaining ground is a saturation of fury and tolling of six strings, disenchanted and corrosive even in the intervals in which their inexhaustible gallery of drifters, outcasts and outcasts seems to open up to let a timid ray of sunshine filter through. Which may be made of glass and iron, but seen from the perspective of Malcolm Holcombe and Bits & Pieces, it is strangely warm.
http://www.rootshighway.it/recensioni/2023/holcombe.htm
Malcolm Holcombe
Bits & Pieces
[Need to Know 2023]
On the web: malcolmholcombe.com
File Under: Misery is the river of the world
by Gianfranco Callieri (06/26/2023)
By now Malcolm Holcombe, a singer-songwriter from North Carolina, is about to turn seventy and, despite having touched, some time ago, the orbit of the record multinationals, continues to express himself in the most total and tireless regime of independence, rarely making records that include something more than his voice, his guitar and the supervision (sometimes instrumental accompaniment) of the trusty Jared Tyler. Bits & Pieces - his eighteenth album - belongs to the most iconic sphere of a career that certainly cannot be blamed for having followed the muse of a bombastic or grandiloquent style, but nevertheless bears the burning essentiality of his brutal, gaunt, metaphysical language, son of loneliness and pain, to new depths.
From the sandpaper country-blues of the first Bits And Pieces, a collection of snapshots of human suffering where the images of a drunk priest overlap with those of an insomniac devoured by rage and a homeless man with collapsing lungs, to the melodramatic indictment folk song of the latest Bring To Fly, dedicated to the "humble victims who falter and fall" before "the call of the ruins of Babylon", Holcombe sings in an increasingly flayed voice the hundreds of wounds of an existence in perpetual motion whose flow of conscience - catarrhous, labyrinthine, dominated by the obsession for physical decadence, at times torn by peaks of unexpected lyricism - assumes universal values precisely by virtue of the honesty of its dictation, the evident and indisputable osmosis between the roughness of the sounds, the words and locutions used, and the inner regions, the intimate experience of the user.
In a fairer and more parallel world, the extraordinary folk-rock of Fill Those Shoes, more or less responding to the Holcombian idea of a love song, would end up in the charts exactly as happened, thirty years ago, to the Wallflowers or Spin Doctors (try to imagine it with a less spartan arrangement and you won't be that far from the best pages of these two groups), even if making the electric gasps of The Wind Doesn't Know You digestible in the mainstream sense, the sharp blues of Conscience Of Man, the prison gospel cadences of the hallucinated Happy Wonderland (with a cocaine-drunk brothel-goer who almost finds himself killed, with frying pans, by one of the prostitutes) and the roughly bluegrass dimension of Another Sweet Deal would instead be rather complicated on any planet.
Malcolm Holcombe - 'Bits & Pieces' - review - Lonestar Time (Italy) - 26.6.23
http://www.lonestartime.com/2023/06/malcolm-holcombe-bits-pieces.html
Malcolm Holcombe - Bits & Pieces
Posted by Remo Ricaldone | Labels: Malcolm Holcombe , CD Review
Life has certainly not been easy for Malcolm Holcombe, one of the most particular singer-songwriters of the roots scene, capable of crossing folk, blues and country with a unique and personal style, sometimes tousled but always extraordinarily genuine and sincere. Health problems didn't stop him, perhaps slowed him down at some point, but they were the lever that confirmed his qualities as a fighter, despite everything and everyone. Malcolm Holcombe was lucky enough to meet a great musician and producer like Jared Tyler, a faithful pard who supported him in difficult moments such as the recent cancer diagnosis that could have put an end to the career of the North Carolina storyteller. Instead, the two got to work and the result was a highly inspired record, one of the highest points of a discography that consists of eighteen chapters. "Bits & Pieces" is made up of thirteen new original compositions, imbued with that intense and poetically incisive and profound style which is now Malcolm Holcombe's trademark, interpreted with almost unusual strength. Jared Tyler's instrumental backing playing just about anything with strings is of the finest quality, Malcolm Holcombe's pickin' is solid and rich, his guiding voice trailing a life of excesses, aches and pains and just because this unique and inimitable that sometimes refers to that of the great Dave Van Ronk, with the same sensitivity in handling the roots. "Bits & Pieces" presents us with an author in great shape, able to vary themes easily passing from folk song to country blues, revitalizing a formula that is not easy to reproduce with credibility, guessing melodies and themes underlined by the great talent of Jared Tyler in the arrangements. The 'pieces and pieces' of the title are an inspired patchwork where ours is expressed at all times with admirable effectiveness and often with moving transport, characterized by a skilful guitar work whose notes are never superfluous and least of all useless. In a similar context it may be unfair to quote a few songs, everyone has something to give in terms of emotions, from the bright "Fill Those Shoes" to the proud and incisive "Hard Luck City", passing through the authentic and pure poetry of moments like “I've Been There”, “The Wind Doesn't Know You”, “Happy Wonderland” and “Every Soul Is There”. "Bits & Pieces" will not struggle to enter sensitive hearts, in those looking for moments that remain fixed in time, the pinnacle of a career that we hope will continue with this effectiveness.
Remo Ricaldone
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https://insession.news/malcolm-holcombe/
Anytime a new album from Malcolm Holcombe arrives, it is a cause for celebration. Not least because he is a great singer/songwriter in the folk/country vein, but also because he was diagnosed with cancer only last year and is still making music that is supremely listenable to.
That voice, grizzled and harsh. And his songs, songs of despair, of strength and weakness all coupled with intense guitar playing. This album was recorded as a duet with Jared Tyler, a set of songs that they needed to get down in case the worst happened.
Holcombe is a survivor of his own worst excesses as well as more trials than most would survive, and it all comes out in his music. As does his eternal sense of hope, a feeling that there may be something around the corner.
The music is not unremitting greyness. He plays and sings with Jared applying textures of mandolin, dobro, harmonies, banjo & guitar and, while many songs are cautionary tales, there are songs of gentle humour and ribald jokery.
Malcolm Holcombe is a genuine original. Probably the best musician working in the US today.
Malcolm Holcombe - 'Bits & Pieces - review (4 stars) - Music-News.com - 25.6.23
Malcolm Holcombe
Bits & Pieces
Proper (label)
27 June 2023 (released)
Anytime a new album from Malcolm Holcombe arrives, it is a cause for celebration. Not least because he is a great singer/songwriter in the folk/country vein, but also because he was diagnosed with cancer only last year and is still making music that is supremely listenable to.
That voice, grizzled and harsh. And his songs, songs of despair, of strength and weakness all coupled with intense guitar playing. This album was recorded as a duet with Jared Tyler, a set of songs that they needed to get down in case the worst happened.
Holcombe is a survivor of his own worst excesses as well as more trials than most would survive, and it all comes out in his music. As does his eternal sense of hope, a feeling that there may be something around the corner.
The music is not unremitting greyness. He plays and sings with Jared applying textures of mandolin, dobro, harmonies, banjo & guitar and, while many songs are cautionary tales, there are songs of gentle humour and ribald jokery.
Malcolm Holcombe is a genuine original. Probably the best musician working in the US today.
G Promo PR
UK/European Press & Radio
Contact: Geraint or Deb Jones
https://www.americanaboogie.com/americana-music-releases-for-june-23rd/
Malcolm Holcombe
Bits & Pieces (Gypsy Eyes Records)
Aside from Holcombe’s gruff vocals, it’s the consistent quality of the lyrics dipped in his marinated melodies that taste so fine. Many tunes are like short stories & though the musicianship is spare – Mr. Holcombe & Jared Tyler’s recording is pristine & the instrumentation is satisfyingly full. It comes with talent & skill. These tunes are all packed – lots of rambunctious country blues/singer-songwriter depth. The fertile imagination of Malcolm provides an earthiness, a rural backdrop that’s unfiltered. He explores greed, hatred & injustice. With these tunes none of the authenticity is lost & no deal with the devil was made. (edited from Americana Highways review)