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Jolie Holland : Catalpa (US,2002)**** (PERF)
On "Alley Flowers" Jolie sings a gospel blues song with accompaniment of acoustic guitar and quiet tribal drums and percussion, so perfectly fitting together in melody and mood it succeeds in creating the kind of mood I just tried to describe. This song could be heard already on the American Myth release which I reviewed before. This is followed by "All the morning birds", a bluesy song with a slight country touch in the good sense, sung with such an intensive experienced voice, with a Negro spiritual like depth, I have rarely heard before in more recently published releases. "Roll my blues" is a bit less expressive, but it's still nice, in "tired of things" mood. "Black hand Blues", is a blues song like they used to perform in the early 20st century. Also "December 1999" and "I wanne die" are both again in a "tired of things" bluesy mood, both beautiful songs with nice interpretations with sparse arrangements. "Demon Lover Improv" starts in a minimal psych blues mode, a duo improvisation of muted banjo / acoustic guitar, and continues with a song. The songs "Catalpa Waltz", and further on "Periphery Waltz" and
"Ghost Waltz" are all in a Bonnie Prince Billie Mood, but sung by a woman, beautifully performed. Also included is a combination of songs ?, -if so, beautifully mixed-; it says it's written by Jolie Holland /Syd Barrett / Samantha Parton (on of the participants on the recording). Next track is a nicely sung W.B. Yates poem, "Wandering Angus", a song originally by Brian Miller. The second part is to me only slightly less appealing, more up tempo country blues song, arranged with banjo, drums, bass.
The album in it's total is relatively charming and primitively recorded. It has a unique mood. The voice of Jolie has an in depth character, and succeeds in describing feelings through bluesy styled singer-songwriting. Not only for those, but especially for those who like the best work of Bonnie Prince Billie, and the singing of Karen Dalton, this is a recommended release. It would be sad to miss this out. A voice destined to become more widely known.
I will ask our singer-songwriter specialist to check the item to describe all abilities including the textual abilities.
Description Of Jolie by Café du Nord, LA : "Jolie Holland's is a voice that attempts to transcend the new and encompass the old through the medium of American music."
Update 2004 : I saw Jolie received full attention and good distribution with her new album. Nice to see this !!
