MALCOLM HOLCOMBE - TRICKS OF THE TRADE - Need To Know Music
Almost three years after his “Come Hell Or High Water”, Malcolm Holcombe returns with his fifteenth album to date. Landed in Nashville in 1990 from his North Carolina, he practiced diving in the kitchen there before being signed in 1996 by Geffen Records ... Late aware of the man's limited commercial potential, the label however gave up editing the subsequent recording (which later lives on Hip-O Records). The guy is characterized by three specific qualities: his impressive picking game, his sharp talent as a songwriter, and his recurring themes. Marginality, social maladjustment, depression, wandering, tribulations and the quest for a hypothetical respite (as far as salvation is concerned, Malcolm hardly seems to have any illusions anymore)… All subjects exhausted at leisure by great predecessors such as Townes Van Zandt, John Prine and Fred Neil, but who express themselves at Holcombe in a special light. Because if we had to summarize the latter under a single name, it would undoubtedly be that of storyteller. To capture these thirteen new originals, he took up residence at the Seven Deadly Sins Studios of his bassist friend Dave Roe, on the outskirts of Nashville, surrounded by his faithful accomplice Jared Tyler (dobro, slide, mandolin), as well as his own son Dave, Jerry, on drums on a few tracks (Miles McPherson doing the rest). The first notable change compared to his predecessor, Malcolm takes a more electro-acoustic approach this time, and Jared sometimes switches to the Telecaster. Obvious evolution from the opening “Money Train”, that Malcolm belches with his rocky tone evoking a lifted Tom Waits with his left foot (and finding its echo in the no less sarcastic “Crazy Man Blues”). The country-rock of “Misery Loves Company” recalls the pasty flow of the late Calvin Russell, pedal-steel in support, while there is one of those endless stories of broken heart on the counter (without one can really determine which of these elements is at the origin of the other). “Into The Sunlight” could have been featured on Dylan's “Nashville Skyline”, if only his lyrics could have been a bit more airtight. Protest-song if there is one, “Your Kin” unambiguously designates those responsible for the misery and oppression of the underprivileged in the Land Of The Free. Feeling of despair and desolation which then internalize “Damn Rainy Day”, “Higher Ground”, “Good Intentions” and the vehement “On Tennessee Land”, in a semi-acoustic mode that JJ Cale would not have denied. A certain Ron de la Vega officiates on the cello on the tender (and drunken?) “Lenora Cynthia”, while the titular track reminds us of which worthy Mississippi emulator John Hurt remains Malcolm. All equally remarkable, the lyrics of these new classics appear in the libretto, and the “Deluxe” version of this album offers as a bonus track a raging (and explicit) “Windows of Amsterdam”, dealing with the carnal trade that is practiced in the great day in the red light area of this Batavian city. So do yourself a favor: unlike many current pseudo-singers-songwriters, Malcolm Holcombe can be as unstoppable as a heart attack.
Patrick Dallongeville
Paris-Move , Blues Magazine , Illico & BluesBoarder
PARIS-MOVE, July 23rd 2021