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And in the wonderful world that I get to live in, there are a few people close or far away, who always seem to have been there. When we talk about musicians, the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina are certainly one of them and, purely out of curiosity, as a result of the release of this new record, I went to see my record box to know how many records I have of the man in my house. Well, that was scary, because there aren't too many artists, I have more than a dozen things in my house. So Malcolm is and there are good reasons for this: I have had several opportunities to attend his concerts over the years, and these were all quite dramatic experiences. Malcolm Holcombe is such a person who grabs you by the neck skin and whose voice and gaze literally forces you to listen. It's impossible to get under Holcombe's songs when he comes to sing them near you. John Prine did, so did Tom Waits, and the recently deceased Nanci Griffith did, though there was more than a bit of a difference between her voice and Malcolm's rasy, barn-paper voice.

Now, that voice in itself is one of the reasons why I've been following Holcombe's career for over a quarter of a century, but it's mainly what he tells and the way he does it that do it for me. No one sounds as "live" as he does on record. This reflects a profound sense of fairness: When Malcolm sings, he doesn't play a role, no, he's the character that's lived the song. He appeals to you personally and formulates at such an appalling level that I have no doubt that I dare to place him in the Waits/Newman/Olney/McMurtry category and anyone who knows me a little knows me knows that this ranking is not easily achieved, although I forget some names now, but that it is always people who have experienced this in their lives.

Malcolm has had his share, parents lost young, liquor and related addictions, relationships that abandon him...and in fact, matter enough to write many songs about. With his dream team, Dave Roe and Jared Tyler, with whom he has been playing for more than 20 years, he plays a baker's dozen vintage Holcombe songs, which seemingly effortlessly combine sharp wording with the sense of melody that makes many of the songs almost instant classics. Unlike some of his previous albums, Tyler does not confine himself to his classical dobro and mandolin, but also turns the guitars around and makes the songs sound a little more powerful, a little more muscular than they used to be. Dave Roe is his own loyal self on bass: unperturbed and by literally nothing or no one to take their lead. Son Jerry Roe plays drums, alternating with Miles McPherson. Guest contributions include cellist Ron de la Vega and singers Mary Gauthier and Jaimee Harris. These are people you can get out of. Provided the songs are good and they are absolute top.

Malcolm's lyrics describe life and its mysteries. Of course, that includes Love, witness "Lenora Cynthia" or the wonderfully ironic "Misery Loves Company", but it also sings inequality in the States: "On Tennessee Land", "Your Kin", and "Damn Rainy Day" all deal with aspects the U.S. government should not boast about. Walls at the borders, bitter poverty for whole populations, blind faith in consumption and the scale of values associated with it (see "Money Train" or the title song): Malcolm observes and reports, but from his own system of values. And that creates, again, a pearl of a plate that may not make you happy, but that the person who is able to put the appropriate finger on each wound. Not that I'd forgotten, but I do remember why I'm so crazy about man's songs: I'd have a few fingers off to write one such song!

(Dani Heyvaert)