Jolie Holland Recent News

JOLIE HOLLAND TO RELEASE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD OCTOBER 7TH

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:06:00 -0700

Wholly Original Singer/Songwriter Taps Notables Such as Marc Ribot and M Ward on 4th Album

Jolie Holland, the lauded performer with a voice described by the Village Voice as "sultry and sweet, despairing and lonely," will release the Living and the Dead on October 7th.

Co-produced by Holland and Pakistani-born Shahzad Ismaily, the Living and the Dead's production credits illustrate the collaborative improvisation that went into making her fourth record. M Ward (She & Him, My Morning Jacket) lent his production skills to a song and also played guitar on two tracks, multi-instrumentalist Ismaily added sounds via bass, moog, shruthi box and a duck call among others, famed guitarist Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello) appears on several songs and former bandmate Samantha Parton (Be Good Tanyas) sings on the final track. The results bear the evocative moodiness that has always existed in Holland's music, but also capture the rollicking creativity of the studio environment, highlighting a new influence on her songwriting that Holland explores for the first time on this release.

"I love rock and roll, but I think it was hard for me to trust the motives of it for a while," says Holland. "Then I started listening to Neil Young and Daniel Johnston and it kind of allowed me to become inspired by that kind of sound again. I hadn't really written rock songs before," she continues. "On this record I felt like I really surrounded myself with some incredibly creative people."

Some of the songs on the Living and the Dead were performed at Holland's recent residency at Union Pool in Brooklyn NY. The acclaimed appearances gave her new hometown of Brooklyn the chance to delve into the dust bowl loneliness of Holland's songwriting, her rare and distinctive approach to singing and her elusory Texas-by-way-of-San Francisco accent.

Tracklisting for the Living and the Dead:
01. Mexico City
02. Corrido Por Buddy
03. Palmyra
04. You Painted Yourself In
05. Fox In Its Hole
06. Your Big Hands
07. Sweet Loving Man
08. Love Henry
09. The Future
10. Enjoy Yourself

JOLIE HOLLAND TO PERFORM WEEKLY IN BROOKLYN IN APRIL

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:03:00 -0700

Folky Siren With a "Voice as Pure and Direct as a Hit of Moonshine" (Rolling Stone) to Perform at Union Pool In Preparation of Fall Release

Jolie Holland, Anti’s recording artist known for her authentic yet completely original take on traditional American music, is set to perform for the first time in over a year in a three week residency at Union Pool, in her adopted hometown of Brooklyn NY.

Shows on April 16th, 23rd and 30th will contain both material from earlier lauded albums Catalpa, Escondida and Springtime Can Kill You, as well as material from her yet-untitled release, due out later this year. On the 30th, Holland will be accompanied by guitarist Marc Ribot, acclaimed for his work with the likes of Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, T-Bone Burnett and John Zorn.

Holland is an old soul who carries her countless treks across the U.S and her stints in Texas and California in her rare approach to singing, stellar songwriting and elusory accent. She has made several critically acclaimed records, filled with folky Americana and sultry jazz, but it is Holland’s distinctive voice that makes each of her releases like no other.

Earlier praise for Jolie Holland:

"Springtime Can Kill You holds all of its stories, emotions and contradictions, like a multi-colored, roughly stitched quilt, made from well-worn blankets, shirts, and pants. It offers comfort, strength, and warmth, collecting all the stories that came and went, leaving something of themselves behind."
-All Music Guide

"Her music embodies a dyed-in-the-wool timelessness that can’t be counterfeited." - Rolling Stone

"Holland’s works may harken back to the Jazz age, but the immediacy of her voice and the originality of her songwriting mark her as entirely current. Whether playing guitar, piano or uke, Holland had a knack for crafting an intimate sound." - NY Daily News

"Like a child of Sara Carter and Blind Willie Johnson, Holland writes and sings like an old soul, with wisdom beyond her years." - SF Chronicle

"Literate, spooky and utterly compelling, Escondida is not only an astonishing album, but the announcement, visionary talent." - Paste

Jolie Holland is covered by the new York Free Press

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 00:10:00 -0700

KILLING YOU SOFTLY
Jolie Holland�s croon is pure blues

By David Chiu

Jolie Holland�s music is steeped in haunting American Gothic imagery. References to moonshine, honeysuckle vines, back roads, weeds and mockingbirds seem both as literary and cinematic as they are Southern in character. Those images are further conveyed with her bittersweet gin-soaked amalgam of folk, jazz and blues.

The 31-year-old singer describes her songwriting as mythical. �The use of symbols and kind of like broad strokes to mean a lot of different things�like that�s how I mean mythical,� she explains.

Holland�s subdued tales of melancholy, heartbreak and joy with romantic underpinnings can be heard on her recent third album, Springtime Can Kill You. The songs here sound as dreamy as they are lovelorn. The title track itself reveals a sort of irony about what we usually think of spring�as a time of rebirth and renewal. �The expectation in everything around you, everything is so beautiful,� she says. �A heartache at that time is just horrible. It�s just, like, extra horrible.�

Her distinctive jazz- and blues-inflected croon has been compared to Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith, although she admits to being more inspired vocally by a legendary bluesman. �I never had any [voice] lessons,� says Holland. �If you listened to Blind Willie McTell you might hear how I got my voice. Blind Willie McTell is the guy that I�m actually trying to sound like.�

Holland recorded Springtime Can Kill You in San Francisco backed by a cast of talented musicians. �On this record,� she says, �I just got pretty much all my favorite players in San Francisco to be on there. Everybody on there is somebody I deeply admired and respect.�

A native of Houston, Holland knew she wanted to become a songwriter since she was a child. By her teens, she was into punk rock, The Pogues and the Texas-based band Twang Twang Shock-A-Boom. �They really steered me into the direction that I am going now,� she says of the latter group. �Their lead guy [David Garza] went on to do a solo thing. I love what he does. I want to work with him somehow.�

Holland, whose previous albums include Catalpa (2003) and Escondida (2004), has also appeared on Bad Religion singer Greg Graffin�s recent solo effort, Cold as the Clay. Before she embarked on a solo career, Holland was a former member of the group the Be Good Tanyas (the lovely �Mexican Blue� from Springtime Can Kill You is dedicated to Be Good Tanyas member Samantha Parton). Since then, Holland has drawn raves for her music, most notably from Tom Waits, who nominated her for the Shortlist Music Prize in 2003.

When asked if she was a hopeless romantic, Holland responds that she has a really bad and unrequited crush at the moment, which she finds painful. But then she quickly follows that with, �It�s so good for you to be in love at the same time.�

Jolie Holland - in studio special studio media

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 00:09:00 -0700

St. Paul, Minn. � Spring is usually associated with new life and rebirth, but on her new CD, Jolie Holland looks at spring from a different point of view.

Springtime Can Kill You chronicles an ugly breakup during a beautiful San Francisco spring. Jolie Holland performed two previously unreleased songs and talked with The Current's Jill Riley.

Songs performed: "*Corrido por Buddy," "Goodbye California," and "*Sweet Lover Man."

http://minnesota.publicradio.org

Rogue's Gallery official press release now available!

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 00:06:00 -0700

GORE VERBINSKI, JOHNNY DEPP AND HAL WILLNER
JOIN FORCES WITH ANTI RECORDS FOR THE AUGUST 22 RELEASE:
�ROGUE�S GALLERY: PIRATE BALLADS, SEA SONGS & CHANTEYS�

BONO, STING, LOU REED, BRYAN FERRY, JOHN C. REILLY, RICHARD THOMPSON, LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III, LUCINDA WILLIAMS ARE AMONG THE DIVERSE ARTISTS ON THIS TRULY EXTRAORDINARY COLLECTION

�The ocean. It�s all about the vast blue that engulfs two thirds of the planet. The human being cast against that abyss creates an interesting bit of perspective. I think the sailors of the time were dancing with death, and these were their tunes. They resonate with people on some internal level that is not immediately obvious because it�s not in our memory, it�s in our blood. It operates on a cellular level. It�s what makes us feel so alone.�
--Gore Verbinski

Film director GORE VERBINSKI, actor JOHNNY DEPP and music producer HAL WILLNER have joined forces with ANTI RECORDS for the truly extraordinary two-CD set ROGUE�S GALLERY: PIRATE BALLADS, SEA SONGS & CHANTEYS. Due out August 22, the collection is filled with contemporary reinterpretations of songs from a genre of music that has all but disappeared. BONO, STING, NICK CAVE, BRYAN FERRY, LOU REED, LUCINDA WILLIAMS, LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III, RICHARD THOMPSON, GAVIN FRIDAY, VAN DYKE PARKS, ANDREA CORR and RUFUS WAINWRIGHT are only a few of the distinguished artists who turn in uncompromising and honest performances that illuminate the power of traditional sea songs.

The idea for ROGUE�S GALLERY originated when Verbinski and Depp were working on their second film together, the upcoming Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man�s Chest. �I slowly became fascinated by the idea of a contemporary reinterpretation of the sea chantey,� explains Verbinski. �I imagined the artists that I listen to and respect doing their take on this age-old music: the song of the sea.�

Verbinski then �described the project in detail to my old friend Brett Gurewitz (owner of Epitaph and Anti) who immediately understood its wondrous and strange potential. I also asked Johnny Depp if it might be something that he would like to be involved with. He has a great musical aesthetic, and as my partner in the films, his opinion is one I value. I�ve always believed Johnny is a musician first and the actor thing is just his day job. We met with Brett and put together a list of artists that we intended to go after, but were immediately confounded with the question: who would produce? Who would be mad enough to take this on?�

The project took shape when Hal Willner became �the captain of this vessel,� says Verbinski. �From that germinating withering pubic hair of an idea, Hal set sail and returned with what you hear today. He did everything.� Willner brought his knack for matching maverick musicians with extraordinary material to the project, as shown on his best-selling Disney tribute album Stay Awake and his acclaimed tributes to Kurt Weill, Charles Mingus, Nino Rota and others.

�When I was asked to do the album, I went into a world I didn�t know--which is what appealed to me,� says Willner. Immersing himself in antique bookstores, eBay, old record stores, and the Internet for hours and hours, Willner collected some 600 songs and then went about narrowing the song selection down for the album. In March 2006, the recordings began--and the process was joyously freewheeling.

�We were just crawling around, just seeing who was around,� he explains. �The Akron/Family was rehearsing, so we recorded them. And then we found Baby Gramps. And that�s kind of how we worked all over. We�d go up to London or Dublin or to New York and L.A., with just a sketch and one or two things planned. And then we got on the phone. Most of the time people just came into the studio. We picked a song, and they went for it. Basically there were a number of house bands: one in London, one in Dublin, one in New York, two separate ones in L.A., one in Seattle. We would camp and people would come in and leave or join in for the whole day. One day we did eight songs with eight different artists. Two of those artists didn�t know they were going to be in the studio that day. I just loved working this way because you wouldn�t do that with an artist normally.�

Asked about the Sting contribution �Blood Red Roses,� Willner says, �He was totally natural for this subject. He comes from Newcastle. He grew up hearing these things--it�s interesting how you hear a lot of little Beatles melodies in these songs. You know, Liverpool was a big port, and Australia and Maui and Cape Cod. Sting grew up with a lot of these songs, as did John C. Reilly. So he just came over to the studio, I gave him some songs and he just jumped into the process.�

60 songs were recorded for ROGUE�S GALLERY; 43 appear on the album. �Hopefully, there will be a volume two. I have half of it recorded already.� Willner says: �I came to age in the late sixties and early seventies of variety shows and concept records. I look at these records like you�re eating a full meal. There�s always your entr�e, your vegetable that you don�t like but it�s good for you. And you want to cover it all. You need to establish the unknown, the famous, the obscure. Usually in the past I�ve always found that the secret weapons on these records are any new artists because you�re coming at it without expectations. And there�s other people that you�ve heard for years--but on that side it goes to another level.�

Willner is now anxious for others to discover the enchanting mystery of ROGUE�S GALLERY. "Obviously I want people to love it the way I do,� he says. �I would hope that it works on a level where they just want to go and close their eyes and have an experience--and come out of it the same way I came out of it, wanting to hear more. Put this record in your collection as a classic--that was Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp�s idea.�

Proud of what all of the artists have brought to the album, Verbinski says that the �recordings are vibrant, inspired, rough hewn, and imperfect in that way that only perfection achieves.�

ROGUE�S GALLERY has a perfect home on Anti, the Epitaph Record-affiliated label known for releasing albums by classic renegade artists like Merle Haggard, Tom Waits and Nick Cave. Says Willner: �I think this was the original punk music in an odd way. You can hear it in songs like �Bully in the Alley� and �A Drop of Nelson�s Blood.� It�s there.�

The complete ROGUE�S GALLERY track listing is as follows:

CD 1

1. Cape Cod Girls - Baby Gramps
2. Mingulay Boat Song - Richard Thompson
3. My Son John - John C. Reilly
4. Fire Down Below - Nick Cave
5. Turkish Revelry - Loudon Wainwright III
6. Bully In The Alley - Three Pruned Men
7. The Cruel Ship's Captain - Bryan Ferry
8. Dead Horse - Robin Holcomb
9. Spanish Ladies - Bill Frisell
10. High Barbary - Joseph Arthur
11. Haul Away Joe - Mark Anthony Thompson
12. Dan Dan - David Thomas
13. Blood Red Roses - Sting
14. Sally Brown - Teddy Thompson
15. Lowlands Away - Rufus Wainwright & Kate McGarrigle
16. Baltimore Whores - Gavin Friday
17. Rolling Sea - Eliza Carthy
18. The Mermaid - Martin Carthy & the UK Group
19. Haul On The Bowline - Bob Neuwirth
20. Dying Sailor to His Shipmates - Bono
21. Bonnie Portmore - Lucinda Williams
22. Shenandoah - Richard Greene & Jack Shit
23. The Cry Of Man - Mary Margaret O'Hara

CD 2

1. Boney - Jack Shit
2. Good Ship Venus - Loudon Wainwright III
3. Long Time Ago - White Magic
4. Pinery Boy - Nick Cave
5. Lowlands Low - Bryan Ferry w/Antony
6. One Spring Morning - Akron/Family
7. Hog Eye Man - Martin Carthy & family
8. The Fiddler/A Drop of Nelson's Blood - Ricky Jay & Richard Greene
9. Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold - Andrea Corr
10. Fathom The Bowl - John C. Reilly
11. Drunken Sailor - David Thomas
12. Farewell Nancy - Ed Harcourt
13. Hanging Johnny - Stan Ridgway
14. Old Man of The Sea - Baby Gramps
15. Greenland Whale Fisheries - Van Dyke Parks
16. Shallow Brown - Sting
17. The Grey Funnel Line - Jolie Holland
18. A Drop of Nelson's Blood - Jarvis Cocker
19. Leave Her Johnny - Lou Reed
20. Little Boy Billy - Ralph Steadman

Jolie Holland takes "Springtime" on tour this summer

Thu, 25 May 2006 00:05:00 -0700

Highly-Lauded Springtime Can Kill You Elicits Poetic Responses From Critics

In support of her new, highly praised Anti- album, Springtime Can Kill You acclaimed singer/songwriter Jolie Holland will embark on a seven-week North American tour on June 14th. Launching in Eugene, Oregon and running through July 28th in Madison, Wisconsin, Holland�s Stateside trek comes on the heels of some of her finest critical reviews to date.

Released May 9th, the inventive, magical Springtime Can Kill Y o u has met with vast accolades, eliciting imaginative, otherworldly depictions from music scribes worldwide. Entertainment Weekly gave Holland an �A� rating, calling her latest, �proof folk music shouldn�t just conjure the past, but also sit down and have a drink with it in the present.� Meanwhile Elle called Jolie�s new disc �arresting� and said, �[Holland�s] lilting, weathered warble floats over screwball swing made from a junk shop orchestra that includes old pianos, whistles and the occasional tuba.�

In a recent cover story on unconventional, Bay Area-based recording artist/muse, The San Francisco Weekly exclaimed, �through beguiling contrasts and magical moments, Jolie Holland has emerged with a singular, elusive sound. Holland is every character in the fairy tale all at once: the petulant beast and the heart-melting beauty, the catastrophe and the deliverance.� While Billboard succinctly remarked, �In a perfect world, everyone would know the name Jolie Holland.�

Although Holland wrote most of the material on her third Anti- release � which rewards listeners with each successive listen � her guitarist Brian Miller landed a co-writing credit on �Springtime Can Kill You � and �Crush In The Ghetto,� while her friend C.R. Avery crafted �Crazy Dreams.�

�Most of the stories and words are mine,� Holland says of Springtime Can Kill You . �But there are a few instances in which I let other people�s songs tell the story because my voice is one of millions, just a tiny drop in an ocean of love songs.�

Jolie Holland�s U.S. tour dates are as follows:

6/14/2006
Sam Bonds Garage
Eugene
OR

6/15/2006
Aladdin Theatre
Portland
OR

6/16/2006
The Nightflight Lounge
Bellingham
WA

6/17/2006
Triple Door
Seattle
WA

6/21/2006
Urban Lounge
Salt Lake City
UT

6/23/2006
Boulder Theater
Boulder
CO

6/24/2006
Bluebird Theatre
Denver
CO

6/27/2006
Rhythm Room
Phoenix
AZ

6/28/2006
Casbah
San Diego
CA

6/29/2006
Safari Sams
Hollywood
CA

7/1/2006
Bimbos 365 Club
San Francisco
CA

7/11/2006
Canal Room
New York
NY

7/12/2006
Museum of Fine Arts
Boston
MA

7/13/2006
Higher Ground
Winooski
VT

7/14/2006
Tin Angel
Philadelphia
PA

7/15/2006
Jammin Java
Vienna
VA

7/16/2006
Gravity Lounge
Charlottesville
VA

7/18/2006
The Poor House
Raleigh
NC

7/19/2006
Orange Peel
Asheville
NC

7/20/2006
Eddies Attic
Decatur
GA

7/23/2006
The Dame
Lexington
KY

7/28/2006
High Noon Saloon
Madison
WI

1/19/2007
Orpheum Theatre
Sioux Falls
SD

The press is buzzing over Jolie Holland's new album!

Mon, 08 May 2006 00:05:00 -0700

Go back to a time of apple wine, clapboard shacks and half-empty cartons of cigarettes, dusty skirts from rambling roads and porch-sitting, with the sounds of creaking boards and crickets on the air. Under a tree with an open palm you�ll find Jolie Holland, singing of your troubles to keep hers away. This is her world�the one far beyond her tangible southern roots�and on her third full-legnth she welcomes us back with an open arm and a jug of moonshine hugged tight with the other.

She�s Patsy Cline without the fringe, Billie Holiday minus Tin Pan Alley, and Feist without the Prozac. In Springtime, she�s immersed in her realm once again, though she�s traded in the �Morphine� and creepy, hillbilly-chic of Escondida for a sound that�s a hint more melodic and just a touch less disturbed. Her screeching fiddle fades out, replaced by the delicate strums of campfires and beach blankets (�Adieu False Heart,� �Stubborn Beast�) and the piano-heavy smokiness of rustic bar tunes and warm liquor (�Mexican Blue,� �Mehitibell�s Blues,� the title track). This is still Jolie�s place, but the hint of a smile in the corners of her mouth makes it that much more welcoming.

Lesley Bargar - Filter Magazine

The test of an artist's true bearing is often found in their second album, the notion being that there's been a lifetime leading up to the debut, and then just a year or two for its successor. Jolie Holland has risen to the occasion with aplomb. Writing specifically for this release as well as for a band for the first time, there's a resonant bearing to the set as a whole. A dreamy quality pervades the set. As the instrumentation subtly varies from track to track, it further underscores the changing settings of a mind running wild while the body sleeps. Holland also addresses the idea overtly on the song "Nothing Left to Do But Dream." The gentle narrative offers surprises, such as the jarring, "I took my sister to the river and I came back alone." Small combo arrangements throughout serve to empower the lyrics--clich�-free and full of emotional breadth.

David Greenberger � Amazon.com

Jolie Holland's sophomore studio outing for Anti is a leap from her landmark Escondida. While that album traveled seamlessly from genre to genre without trying, Springtime Can Kill You moves at a slower, more labyrinthine pace toward an end that only Holland could conjure. There are many artists these days stepping deep into the rich tradition of American roots music, whether it's country, blues, folk, or gospel. To her credit, Holland is looking for something even more mercurial in her songwriting and cover performances: the American parlor -- or living room in the era before television when the radio was its centerpiece: it was the terrain where many voices, experiences, and stories from near or ghostly far came to life. Here,she articulates them in the present, often in the first person, as musical languages and as well-worn fables from life's margins. Holland's voice, always so original, sounds like it comes from some other bygone era, yet utters itself in contemporary terms; it is the anchor on which all this beautiful eventide music turns. It can be weary, tired, shy, and sly; it can be deeply divided and ambivalent; it can be sexually charged with the notion of conquest and discovery, and in its sultry, suggestive drawl it reveals even as it conceals; it's ready for the next lover's embrace or the challenge of finding it. Still at other times, it's full of grief, or intimate regret, or wide-eyed wonder and innocence at what reveals itself in the moment. It's a voice where there is no grain, only a rounded disclosure that carries within it all the moments the words were born from.

Whether she's writing original material or covering traditional tunes -- on this set she does a gorgeous reading of "Adieu False Heart" -- the effect is the same. It's intimate, like a secret told readily. And to further embolden herself, she's recorded portions of the disc in front of a small audience, and cut most of the music live from the floor. She engages country music, jazz, skeletal rock, swing, and '30s style pop in her original compositions as well as on a pair of stunning covers: poet and songwriter C.R. Avery's "Crazy Dreams" and Riley Puckett's classic "You're Never Satisfied." Other tracks offer stylistic or inspirational nods where they're due, such as on the country blues tune "Moonshiner," where she offers props to Freakwater and Memphis Minnie. Leisurely guitars, piano, horns, percussion, bass, and very subtle electronic flourishes illustrate Holland's sung words; their irony, their desire, their sadness and regret, and their slightly crazy, visionary illuminations. A listen to the opener, "Crush in the Ghetto," reveals a love song that looks at squalid surroundings as they've undergone a transformation through loopy joy and the skewed perception of the protagonist who is quietly, yet ecstatically wrecked by love: "It's a beautiful morning in the ghetto/Finer than the day before/The ants are crawling over my pants as if to say/they know where the honey is..." The heart of everyday life is illustrated in images of children crying on buses, high growing weeds that bear witness to "birds of paradise" in gentle singsong style that is illuminated by a shimmering B3, French horn, bells, guitars, and more. The title track is a slippery, rhythmically complex jazz tune. The drums swing, all cymbals and sheen, against the vocal. A human whistle sounds gaily from the margin. Holland refuses depression's darkness in her vocal as a four-note piano vamp in between refrain and verse, gives her fuel: "Don't you see we're all hurt the same way? So get out, get out of your house....If you don't go get what you need/Something's going to break on the inside..." A baritone horn plays an interlude in unison with that whistle to underscore this small but revelatory truth. "Stubborn Beast," is a skeletal songwriter's manifesto, set to a country waltz with Keith Carey's lap steel and a brushed drum kit lifting the guitars and vocals; it's a confessional shoulder shrug. "Ghostly Girl" is a country song from the other side of closing time, sung by the performer in the mirror in a cheap hotel. It's sad, wistful, and resigned. "Mexican Blue," another love song, closes the set. Holland's poetic lyric embraces everything in images -- "I saw you riding on your bike/In a corduroy jacket in the night/Past the hydrangeas blooming in the alley...When I lay beside you in the sleepless night/And when you dreamed my guardian spirits appeared..." -- a tiny glockenspiel enters, and underscores the wonder and gratitude in the verse. Electric guitars come razor-like and wind their way in; Holland's voice greets them mid-swell near the end: "I'll remember all the dreams and mysteries/You have born in your crystalline soul/That you sing from your golden throat/That you shine from your sparkling eyes/That you feel from the goddess in your thighs/You're like a saint's song to me..." And after its final words, it just ends. Springtime Can Kill You holds all of its stories, emotions and contradictions, like a multi-colored, roughly stitched quilt, made from well-worn blankets, shirts, and pants. It offers comfort, strength, and warmth, collecting all the stories that came and went, leaving something of themselves behind .

Thom Jurek - All Music Guide

ZERO MAG
If Fiona Apple were a country singer, she'd sound a bit like Jolie Holland. But Ms. Holland is not a country singer � that's simply one of her many modes � and just as often she summons the voices of Ma Rainey and Billie Holiday. Holland is rooted in the folk troubadour singer-songwriter tradition, but her music bleeds into blues, jazz, and soul. She's a lot younger than she sounds on Springtime Can Kill You, as she's got both the universal perspective and the sturdy countenance of a more mature musician.
Her third full-length (all on Anti-) finds her continuing her sultry path through the history of American music. If anything, she's quieted down even more with this effort, playing less gospel and swing and more country, blues, and vocal jazz than on her previous releases. The album's title embodies its dark spirit, as do song names like "Crush in the Ghetto," "You're Not Satisfied," and "Nothing Left to Do But Dream." The darkness of the past can shed light on the future, and nothing accomplishes this better than music.
Nate Seltenrich

NPR Song Of The Day
May 3, 2006 � Many of Jolie Holland's fatalistic, woozily paced songs come with a body count, but she rarely spares herself: She often sings about doomed lovers, and she ranks topmost among the damned. Roughly as cheerful as its title suggests, Springtime Can Kill You finds Holland falling prey to her own stubbornness, sullenness or drunkenness in song after song.
The album's title track even locates the sad underbelly of a season ordinarily associated with rebirth and renewal. For every blooming rose and swooning lover, she notes, there's a sad wallflower done in by missed opportunities. "You don't have the time for the least hesitation," she sings, commanding, "Get out of your house." In its own way, however, "Springtime Can Kill You" comes as close as Holland gets to writing an inspirational anthem, as she uses herself as a cautionary example ("Springtime can kill you / just like it did poor me") for those who opt to stay indoors.
Holland may be beyond salvation here, but not everyone is doomed to the same fate: "High on the moonshine, bodies entwine / Don't you see it's better this way?" The sentiment may be sad, but it says something for the season that it inspires Holland to find a ray of hope -- for everyone else, anyway.

WESTWORD---Jason Heller 5/4/06
Witches have their familiars. Jolie Holland has whole hosts of critters dwelling within the dipping fleurs-de-lis and Rococo ruffles of her music. Most of them are winged, but as Holland reminds us with the title of her third full-length, Springtime Can Kill You, airborne beasts such as ghosts, mockingbirds and memories are dangerous things to pin down. Of course, that doesn't stop her from netting the flightier denizens of her soul and locking them in twelve exquisite, gilded cages; the dozen songs of Springtime span anguish and transcendentally drunken sex as easily as the everyday epiphanies of bus rides and back-road drives. This time around, Holland has fattened her sparse folk jazz and malnourished waltzes with a flock of backup players (including songwriter David Dondero, who duets celestially with her on You're Not Satisfied) and crafted the most stunning, spellbinding work of her career. As for her voice, its haunting coo is still enough to call the birds from the trees -- or the ache out of hearts.
NO DEPRESSION�May/June 2006 Kurt B. Reighley

Perhaps you�ve heard about the Music Genome Project, a huge undertaking wherin researchers are breaking millions of recordings down into their core components � timbres, tempos, rhythms, etc. � and cross-referencing all the information. Its most practical application allows an individual to enter an artist they like, then receive recommendations of other acts with overlapping sensibilities.
If there is an album that could stump the MGP, Springtime Can Kill You, the third full-legnth from Bay Area singer-songwriter Jolie Holland, is surely it. Aside from Holland�s amber voice and lazy diction, there is breathtaking (in the best sense)disparity between the disc�s twelve selections.
�Stubborn Beast� suggests the sort of cabaret songs from between the Great Wars once peddled by Lenya and Dietrich, while the country-tinged Moonshiner� is shot through with bittersweet slide guitar. The title track, despite its fatal implications, is a light and lively jazz tune, propelled by flittering cymbals, quick strums, and an air of barely suppressed agitation.
What unifies the disc, besides that bewitching voice, is Holland�s commitment to small yet varied ensembles (including, but not limited to, piano, muted brass and accordion), and recurring lyrics about heartache. But the loose story of a protagonist who feels like the queen of mass transit (�Crush In The Ghetto�) one moment, and devastated the next (the chilling, bare-bones �Ghostly Girl�), constitutes only a fraction of the record�s mercurial appeal. What makes Springtime ultimately so gripping is the way Holland, her characters and her music refuse to be broken �or broken down � as easily as most contemporary recordings.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY A
On her 2002 demo, Catalpa, and 2004�s Escondida, this wandering American singer-songwriter was an original in search of something she hadn�t quite found yet. Here she finds it. That exquisitely strange voice�part Billie Holiday, part tipsy gypsy in a Czech beer bar�becomes a garden of vinelike phrases and oozing vowels and birdlike whistles. And her band breathes along like a ventilator with brushed drums, pump organ, lap steel, and horns. Proof folk music shouldn�t just conjure the past, but also sit down and have a drink with it in the present.

Jolie Holland announces Amoeba in-stores!

Mon, 01 May 2006 00:05:00 -0700

With the release of her new album, Springtime Can Kill You, right around the corner, Jolie Holland has been out on the road performing beautifully for crowds big and small. Today, she announced two in-store performances at Amoeba Records in Hollywood and San Francisco.

All of the event information is listed below, so come on out and see a great performance by a truly special musician if you can.

Amoeba Music - Hollywood
Tuesday May 9th, 2006
7:00 PM

Amoeba Music - San Francisco
Saturday May 13th, 2006
2:00 PM

Jolie Holland gets another stellar review!

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 00:04:00 -0700

Jolie Holland � Springtime Can Kill You
In 1922, T.S. Eliot famously told us, �April is the cruelest month.� In 2006, singer songwriter Jolie Holland tells us �Springtime Can Kill You.� Why are they so down on this time of year? The weather�s warmer, the flowers are blooming and love is in the air. It�s probably that last bit that Eliot and Holland are most concerned with�because if love is in the air, heartbreak is right around the corner. At least that seems to be the general theme of Springtime Can Kill You (Anti-), Holland�s third album, which will hit stores on May 9th. In these songs, falling in love isn�t something to be celebrated; it�s an unwanted affliction. �Look what you�ve done to me,� she sings accusingly to the object of her affections in �Crush In The Ghetto,� the album�s opening track. Sure, Holland sounds love struck (�I�m flirting with the birds, I�m talking to the weeds�), and the achingly pretty, jazzy breeze of the music urges her on. But the subsequent songs on the album make it clear that this feeling is nothing if not fleeting. The album is packed with tales of longing lovers, bitter breakups and high, lonesome blues.

That Springtime Can Kill You is such a joy to listen to, despite its fatalistic view of matters of the heart, is Holland�s real triumph. She�s got a real knack for classic-but-not-derivative melodies that stick in your head for days on end, and her fluttering, smoky vocals remain breathtakingly beautiful. The musicians Holland�s collected to support her provide a perfect backdrop for her melancholy musings. In particular, guitarist Brian Miller shines here�his delicate, deeply emotional solo on the long, loose �Nothing Left To Do But Dream� seems to summon up a lifetime�s worth of bittersweet memories.

The title track is available for download right here.

�Tyler Wilcox

ANTI- To Present One-Of-A-Kind Hootenanny at SXSW

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 00:03:00 -0800

March 18 at Central Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX

Collaborative performance featuring Billy Bragg, Jolie Holland, Ramblin Jack Elliott, Joe Henry , Tim Fite plus special guests

This year at SXSW Anti- Records is presenting its first Hootenanny, a one-of-a-kind collaborative performance by a diverse group of artists, trading off songs and verses in the true spirit of musical community. The Hootenanny will take place on Saturday, March 18 at 12midnight at Central Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX.

Billy Bragg�s proactive brand of populist post punk, pop and folk has been engaging us since the 80s and today he is more inspiring than ever. His appearance at the Hootenanny as well as his other SXSW shows are part of a rare US tour and a break from his recent involvement in UK politics, but anyone who has seen him knows he is not to be missed.

Ramblin Jack Elliott, who is preparing to release his Anti- debut �I Stand Alone� is certainly no stranger to this kind of show, having shared stages with everyone from Woody Guthrie to Ralph Stanley to Bob Dylan in the course of his remarkable career.

Jolie Holland who�s haunting yet jubilant blend of folk, jazz and pop has won many-a-heart in these last couple of years will also be performing. She will be in town in preparation for her upcoming album �Springtime Can Kill You�, due out on Anti- this spring.. Jolie, who has always been at home in this type of environment, has been part of some really interesting collaborations lately, notably, sitting in w/ rapper Sage Francis on a recent LA gig and harmonizing with Bad Religion singer, Greg Graffin on his upcoming solo album.

Joe Henry is the consummate musical Renaissance man. From his acclaimed solo albums, to his vivid songwriting to his recent emergence as producer of soul legends like Solomon Burke and Bettye Lavette, Henry always surprises and never disappoints. He embraces, Rock, R&B, Country and Jazz seamlessly which makes him perfect for this kind of ensemble.

Tim Fite is a true original. Raised on hip hop, but in his early 20s his discovery of Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie changed his life. He is a one-man mash up of folk, rap, spoken word and really catchy songs that delights everyone who sees him. His debut album, �Gone Ain�t Gone� just came out this fall and it has been receiving raves around the world.

The idea is that each of the artists will be featured on a couple of their own tunes backed at times by the other artists on the stage. There will also be more collaborative performances of songs that everyone knows. In addition to these great artists, we are also expecting some special guests to drop by. We are talking to folks from across the musical spectrum, so we are hoping for some really crazy surprises.