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