2012

Bimingham News - 01.19.12
Creative Loafing - 01.10.12
Mountain Times - 01.05.12

2011

Toronto Press - November 2011
Toronto Star - 10.27.11
Toronto Globe and Mail - 10.30.11
Portland Press Herald 10.27.11
The News Leader 10.06.11
Nashville Scene 09.22.11
Yes Weekly 08.17.11
Folk Alley 08.11.11
Mojo Magazine August 2011
Acoustic Magazine July 2011
Allgigs June 2011
Arkansas Times 05.13.11
High Country Press 05.10.11
PopMatters 05.10.11
Acoustic Magazine - May 2011
Music-News.com - 04.03.11
One Chord to Another - 03.29.11
No Depression - 03.11.11
Clare Champion - 03.16.11
Blurt e-zine - 03.11.11
The Herald - 03.04.11
Backroads - 03.13.11
Flyin' Shoes - 03.11.11
The Music Critic - 03.10.11
Foot Stompin' - 03.04.11
The Irish Examiner - 03.05.11
The Plymouth Herald - 03.04.11
The Irish Times - March 2011
Americana UK - 02.27.11
Netrhythms - February 2011
Northern Sky Online Music Magazine - 02.28.11
Listomania - 02.24.11
Whisperinandhollerin.com - February 2011
BBC Review 02.22.11
For Folk's Sake - 02.22.11
Beat Surrender - 02.21.11
Pasadena Weekly - 02.17.11
Folk and Roots - February 2011
Backroads - 02.16.11
The Daily Time - 02.11.11
Option Magazine 02.08.11
Citizen Times - 02.02.11
Third Coast Music - February 2011
Lonesome Highway - 01.24.11
Folk Radio U - 01.14.11

Birmingham News
1/19/12
-by Mary Colurso

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Plenty of independent singer-songwriters are struggling during the recession, butMalcolm Holcombe isn’t the type to complain. Well, not much.

“It’s tough for everyone, unless you’re one of the 1 percent,” says Holcombe, who plays a blend of folk, blues and country. “It’s never been a cakewalk.”

The North Carolina native has been making records since 1985, or thereabouts, and experience has made him wary of the mainstream music industry.

“It’s show business, man,” Holcombe says during a phone interview. “I disdain all that.”

But Holcombe keeps writing tunes and recording them, earning praise for his rough-hewn voice and poetic imagery.

His admirers include fellow musicians such as Lucinda Williams, Tim O’Brien and Mary Gauthier. Holcombe also has fans at music magazines that range from American Songwriter to Rolling Stone.

Self-promotion is the last thing on his mind, though, when Holcombe is asked to chat about his latest album, 2011’s “To Drink the Rain.”

"I don’t write songs for money,” he says. “I write songs because they come to me.”

What keeps him going, aside from the artistic satisfaction?

“The grace of the good Lord,” Holcombe says. “A lot of prayers and my wife’s potato salad.”

Ask him for the recipe on Jan. 20, if you like, when Holcombe performs at Moonlight on the Mountain in Hoover. He’s no stranger to the concert venue, 585 Shades Crest Road, and has a longstanding professional relationship with owner Keith Harrelson.

“It’s a nice little venue,” Holcombe says. “I’ll bang on a guitar.”

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Creative Loafing
- by Jeff Hahne
January 10, 2012

Click here for the PDF article pg. 1

Click here for the PDF article pg. 2

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Mountain Times
-by Jerry Sena
January 5, 2012

Malcolm Holcombe has been up and down thousands of roads in his decades’ long career as a songsmith, singer, guitarist and general troubadour.

After too many roads and too many newspaper interviews to count, Holcombe admitted this week, in the same gravelly drawl that colors his songs, that he doesn’t even bother keeping track anymore.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t count ’em. I do the best I can to show up and play.”

Yet another highway will bring Holcombe and his unique brand of mountain, country, folk blues to Boone’s 641 rpm on Friday, Jan. 13. He’ll perform his songs, including selections from his new Music House Records release, “To Drink the Rain,” beginning at 8 p.m.

This is Holcombe’s second Boone appearance in as many years. He played 641 rpm last December, though he said he doesn’t have any specific recollection of the occasion.

“Just another stop along the road,” he said. “Just trying to get the job done.”

Even if Holcombe can’t sort out the blur of a thousand one-night stands, there’s little doubt that he imparts lasting memories to the audiences he leaves behind. His music is filled with striking stories that speak of joy and sorrow, struggles and the everyday fears and humble triumphs of hard luck people.

At once downhome and worldly, Holcombe’s lyrics move unselfconsciously between romantic love and inevitable death. Some, such as “Down in the Woods,” an upbeat paean to Holcombe’s beloved Blue Ridge Mountains, at times more resemble psalms than folk songs, with plaintive cries to “turn loose o’ my tongue,” and exultations, such as “thank God for the stars, each one in the heavens.”

Despite sacred overtones, it’s Holcombe’s love of earthly things that comes through most clearly.

If Holcombe’s vocal chords sound as if they might have been slathered in coal pitch and set to a slow burn, it’s a beautiful, awful voice that soothes just as well as it can rile the spirit. And it never sounds a false note. That voice has attracted comparisons to those of Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, but Holcombe’s is carried along by an unaffected integrity that neither Dylan nor Waits can claim.

Holcombe grew up in the country around Asheville, where legend has it he cut his musical teeth.

According to one story he tells, his mother bought his first guitar from Sears. Before he had a chance to play it, though, a younger cousin toddled over to use it as a seat and crushed it.

His next flat top came from his father and a shady Asheville pawnshop. When an old Mel Bay guitar instruction book proved unhelpful in teaching him to play, Holcombe eschewed it and took to playing by ear and observation. He appears to have channeled those youthful disappointments into an emphatic style that surprises with its fearless variations between delicate and rough-hewn.

Though he has brushed against Nashville and the temptations and corrupting influences of big-moneyed record companies, the experience has left him glad to be back on his land near Ashville (Swannanoa to be exact), plying his trade from stop to stop.

In the meantime Holcombe’s reputation has steadily moved into the company of cult artists like Townes Van Zandt, whose status among critics and other songwriters far outpaced any name recognition among the mainstream American public. His 2008 release, “Gamblin’ House,” was listed among the year’s top albums in Billboard’s annual Critic’s Choice issue. Yet, like many underappreciated American artists, Holcombe was compelled to seek a broader audience in the U.K. and Europe.

Wherever the audience, Holcombe will show up ready for work – a guy with a guitar and some stories, no different from the help in the back washing the dishes or slinging the hash.

“Just trying to get the job done,” he likes to say. “In my opinion, it’s a gift to have the breath of life in your nostrils and your lungs. Some people are good at finding (their gift) whether they’re good with their hands, good with their eyes, good with their minds, or just good at listening.”

Anyone who’s heard Holcombe sing knows what he’s good at. He’ll be working at 641 rpm in Boone (691 W. King St.) on Friday, Jan. 13, at 8 p.m. All ages welcome. Cover is $8.

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Toronto Press
November, 2011

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Toronto Star
October 27, 2011
- by Greg Quill

• Forget the critics’ superlatives, the misguided allusions to Waits, Van Zandt and Prine, and just check out the numerous live YouTube video performances by North Carolina songwriter/guitaristMalcolm Holcombe, or listen to his recent recording, To Drink the Rain, for evidence of a new and powerful presence in the overpopulated folk-roots/Americana universe. Holcombe’s bringing his killer songs, with their heartbreakingly sad, surreal and often venomous lyrics, and his brave, assertive guitar picking to Toronto for the first time Wednesday night at the Rivoli. (332 Queen St. W. Tickets are $15 at ticketweb.ca, Rotate This and Circus Books & Music. The Rattlesnake Choir open – an inspired match.)

Greg Quill

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Toronto Globe and Mail
October 30, 2011
-by Brad Wheeler

Malcolm Holcombe on truth, honesty and a peanut butter sandwich
BRAD WHEELER
From Monday's Globe and Mail

This week, the rugged country-blues troubadour Malcolm Holcombe performs in Canada for the first time. The North Carolinian, whose latest album To Drink the Rain speaks to wandering, worrying and the sweeter skies of home, spoke to us from the road.

Your song One Man Singin’ has a line about a soul of a singer’s voice being “familiar to the marrow,” with an ability to turn hearts loose from heads and stopping the pain in people’s chest, if just for a second. Does that describe what you do?

I try to give ’em my show as best as I can, and to come across with as much truth and honesty as I can muster up. If you’re going to eat a peanut butter sandwich, just go ahead and put both hands on there and just chow down.

Are you referring to what you put across emotionally, or are we talking showmanship?

I’m not really good at showmanship. A lot of that’s theatre and a lot of that’s fake. I just try and be myself. Dylan said that he’s more Bob Dylan on stage when he’s singing his song. I’ll just go ahead and steal that quote.

You’re known for telling stories though, aren’t you?

I don’t do dog tricks, but I can tell stories and try to form a relationship with the audience. If I can get someone to tap their feet or laugh or take their mind off their troubles, I’m doing okay.

And what do you get out of the deal?

There’s a poison in this world, where people are consumed with themselves. I check my motives, my hands and my thoughts all the time – 24/7. If I can give back a little something, the rest of it’ll shake out down the line, and it ain’t gonna be on this planet.

To get back to showmanship, do you have any thoughts on someone like Tom Waits, who puts on a bit of an act on stage?

He’s got a shtick. But he’s a real thoughtful, soulful writer, and he has a lot of compassion, a lot of intuition and he’s able to spin a tale that comes across the palm of his hand as being as real as rain.

Do you buy into the notion that when artists like yourself, or Townes Van Zandt or Steve Earle, go through hard times, that somehow your art is more authentic?

When I was drunk and trying to write a song on paper, and when I sobered up I couldn’t read what I wrote, that was a drag. Being influenced by chemicals just fogged my vision.

How do you account for your rising career fortunes now, at age 56?

I don’t know. I think if you hang around the barbershop long enough, you get a haircut. I’m sure you’ve heard that one.

Yes, from you. You’ve said that in other interviews.

[Laughs] Yeah, man, I’ve got to learn some new Canadian expressions. I’ve never stepped foot in Canada. At least I don’t remember it.

This interview has been condensed and edited.

Malcolm Holcombe plays Toronto’s Rivoli on Nov. 2 and Hamilton’s This Ain’t Hollywood, Nov. 3.

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Portland Press Herald
October 27, 2011
-by Ray Routhier

Music: Malcolm Holcombe still ramblin'
By Ray Routhier rrouthier@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

Steve Earle has called singer-guitarist Malcolm Holcombe the “best songwriter I ever threw out of my recording studio.”

That says a lot. First, Earle is one of the most critically acclaimed songwriters of his era, so he knows musical talent when he sees it.

He’s also famous for battling addiction and being hard to work with. So if he had to throw Holcombe out of his studio, you know Holcombe was not exactly a saint.

Holcombe, 56, says his days of drinking and explosive behavior are behind him now. Hes says he's been sober for years, and that his goal is to play music as long as he can and hope it helps him, and others, along the way.

But even when he’s being humble about his success as a musician, his thoughts seem to ramble in ways that are not easy for everyone to follow.

The same can be said for many of his songs.

“I count my blessings that a lot of folks have been really kind to me – whether they’re doing their job, or exploiting me, or smiling or laughing – people come to my shows,” said Holcombe. “From my perspective, I’m just trying to be of service and keep body and soul together, like most people.

“A lot of people wear a black hat on the inside; I like to think mine is just dingy white. At the end of the day, everyone wants to work for a healthier path for all concerned, though it may not always seem that way.”

Holcombe will perform a show at One Longfellow Square in Portland tonight. It’s a suitably intimate venue for a performer whose music is intensely personal.

Holcombe has gained critical raves during his more than 30 years in music, especially for his thoughtful songwriting and soulful Appalachian-based folk sound. He grew up in small town outside of Asheville, N.C. He remembers being influenced by seeing the bluegrass duo of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs on TV in the early 1960s during the national folk revival. But he was also a fan of 1960s pop radio.

He eventually wound up in Nashville, working as a dishwasher and performing when he could. He wowed enough people to get a deal with Geffen Records and make an album, but it was shelved.
Beginning in the 1990s, Holcombe moved back to North Carolina and made a string of albums that gained him a following here and in Europe, especially in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Today, he still lives near Asheville and travels the world performing his songs. Although his music has been categorized by critics as “country blues” or Americana, Holcombe wants to call it just folk. For a very specific reason.

“It’s got fewer syllables, and that’s what we all are – just folk,” he said.

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be
contacted at 791-6454 or at:
rrouthier@pressherald.com

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The News Leader
October 6, 2011
-by Bill Kramer

Malcolm Holcombe, who will play Mockingbird on Oct. 14, is an artist whose music has been described by David Fricke of Rolling Stone as "Not quite country, somewhere beyond folk, Holcombe's music is a kind of blues in motion, mapping backwoods corners of the heart."

Apparently, those backwoods corners of the heart have come quite hard-earned by Holcombe, who has had public difficulties with alcohol and drugs, as well as family challenges.

What is clear is that having battled demons of various sorts in his career, he has emerged — however cryptic — as a performer of commanding presence, one whose latest recording "To Drink the Rain" shows he's reached a weathered — though triumphant — place and his fans (and peers) have taken notice.

Singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams, who knows a thing about country and the blues, has said of Holcombe's release, "From the first note I was drawn in. Malcolm Holcombe is an old soul and modern day blues poet. He is a rare find."

The new project is his eighth release and was recorded rather quickly by today's recording standards, most of the tracks in just one pass at the song (another rarity in studio recording) and the result is an immediacy and intimacy of his musical soul. On the other hand, in an email interview with the News Leader, Holcombe's answers are less revealing, with a less-than-expansive nature of talking about his work and a sometimes ambiguous nature.

When asked by email to characterize his own sound, which has been described as a Texas/Nashville kind of country blues, he replied, "It's plain folk music."

When asked about his approach to songwriting, he replied, "It's a crap shoot. If you like corn, grab a hoe." One would suppose that writing his far-from simple "folk music" would require at least the kind of effort and patience that it takes to grow food as well as a random occurrence.

Holcombe is someone who reveals more of himself in his music than he does in his answers about it. A listen to "To Drink the Rain" shows a great depth of thought and feeling. "Where I Don't Belong" examines one's fate and actions, while "One Man Singin'" and the title track "To Drink the Rain" seem as close to autobiographical as he's going to get, though the former is delivered with tender mercy while the second seems like it could have been sung by Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters.

When asked about how his songs evolve from the way they were recorded in the studio to how he performs them live, he replied "My short-term memory offers an unlimited amount of trial and error." One might surmise that perhaps he's saying that the songs do indeed change characteristics in a live setting.

Holcombe does, however, reveal more clear thoughts and gratitude about his longtime friend and producer Jared Tyler. Tyler has stuck with Holcombe through all his trails and tribulations, produced "To Drink the Rain" and has obviously been an encouragement for him beyond a professional level. "I'd take a bullet for him and still owe him money," Holcombe stated in an email.

An indication of the loyalty and respect that those in the music business for Holcombe is also reflected in the fact that when Tyler called Dave Roe, who played in Johnny Cash's last band, to play bass on the CD sessions, he canceled some previous commitments. Afterward, he said: "Malcolm is the only artist that I would fight to be on his recording."

Holcombe was typically cryptic as he explained what he'd learned after making eight recordings: "Be honest with folks you trust and have faith in them with respect ... and don't hog the coffee pot."

He cited his influences as "Townes Van Zandt, David Olney, Tony Arata and a bunch of folk long gone. Thanks and God bless y'all." It's been said that Holcombe emerged from his various struggles with a renewed faith. When inquired of him if this was so, he wrote, "Yes far beyond any shadow of a doubt, but my struggle is peanuts compared to those with and before me."

Mockingbird plays host to some fine artists, of all stripes. But none more enigmatic than Holcombe, who finished his email with, "Looking forward to the Mockingbird and I try to be of service to my fellow brother and sister...."

E-mail Go! music critic Bill Kramer at b.kramer@mailcity.com.

 

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Nashville Scene
September 22, 2011
-by Jack Silverman

Malcolm Holcombe w/Dana Cooper
When: Fri., Sept. 23, 6 p.m. 2011

I first saw Holcombe play in 1997, and was absolutely stunned — never before had I been so blown away by one man and an acoustic guitar. But his weakness for booze and other excesses was glaringly evident — both in his demeanor, and in whispered tales of legendary binges, pawned guitars and blown opportunities. He appeared so near the precipice, in fact, that it seemed inconceivable that the he’d be breathing, let alone putting out great records, 14 years later. But here it is 2011, and Holcombe has somehow managed to steer back onto the long, lonesome highway. The suspense of whether he might fall off his stool may be gone, but his unorthodox finger picking, singular songwriting style and unearthly voice are as spellbinding as ever — he’s like a grizzled backwoods mystic who’s wandered down from some dank Blue Ridge cavern. To Drink the Rain is the latest in a string of consistently strong albums since his course correction. Highlights include the country-blues stomper “One Leg at a Time,” the waltzing spiritual “Down in the Woods” and the sweet, lilting folksong “Reckon to the Wind.” And stick around for Dana Cooper, who plays the late show: Of his most recent album, theScene’s Jim Ridley writes, “The Conjurer finds Cooper the ‘mysterious man of mellifluous melody’ breathing new life into raw tunes nearly four decades deep in his catalog, with a sprightly roots-rock snap that wouldn’t be out of place on a Peter Case record.”
— Jack Silverman

 

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Yes Weekly
8/17/2011
- by Ryan Snyder

Malcolm Holcombe delivers an unsettlingly beautiful set at the Blind Tiger. (photo by Ryan Snyder)

Few performers are worth going to blows over to enjoy, but then again, not everyone sings and plays and carries on like Malcolm Holcombe, last Friday night’s performer at the Blind Tiger. When the spirit possesses the hardscrabble Appalachian bard, he can possess you, and suddenly the blustering yokel who walks in mid-show at one of his malattended sets is just begging to be told righteously to shut the hell up — or something to that effect. To fully appreciate the animal of Malcolm Holcombe, you have to buckle in and focus; far be it for anyone to interfere with that.

Of course, Holcombe himself looks like someone not so inclined to take any guff, and he definitely doesn’t spare the F-bombs. With a wardrobe fit for a hobo and a just a few strands of scraggly hair wafting from the edges of his dome, he looks like an older, meaner version of Killer Bob from “Twin Peaks.” There’s a distinctly Dada-ist quality to Holcombe’s performances, though. His rapid convulsions and profanity-laced outbursts suggest mental illness — actors might spend their entire lives perfecting the unsettling mania that he emits. But then he drops a beautifully twisted piece of real life on you via lyric and melody and suddenly you’re convinced that there’s a perfectly sane, genuine, possible genius performing before you.

He’s currently touring on songs from his eighth album To Drink the Rain, a collection of songs that are arguably his most clear headed. He still plays the part well on “Sparrows and Sparrows,” but no longer is he the tender hearted drunk that Tom Waits projects sympathetically; on “Where I Don’t Belong,” he accepts his place in the afterlife for worse. Yet, he followed such vexing trips with lamentful, comforting pieces like “Mountain Home” and “A Far Cry From Here” from his first album. Then there are the downright tearjerkers like his story of young, unprepared parents, “For the Mission Baby,” that hit you like a punch in the gut.

He played solo, rather than with the lush accompaniment he received on To Drink the Rain, giving his songs an intensity that matches his own. For every gravelly bellow he lets loose, he’s bending and snapping strings, or beating on the body of his CF Martin guitar, displaying a style born more of the delta than Appalachia, a primitive col lection of root chords that eventually drifts to country, jazz as needed.

His playing is as unconventional as it is uncanny, but he probably has a story that backs that up, and his repertoire of anecdotes is as surreal as they get. “I came to school out here in 1976,” he said. “Can’t remember why.” He’s recovered from those years in the throes of alcohol, and songs like “Becky’s Blessed” suggest he’s learned an appreciation for the sweet and simple things. He suggested to the crowd that everyone, at some point, needs take the time to sit behind the driver of a city bus, simply because they’re the best listeners. He thanked the bartender for his pineapple juice and the soundmen for the wedges in his monitor, all by name. He’s an uncommon kind of troubadour to be certain, and if you ever walk into a bar where he’s playing, just shut the hell up and pay attention.

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Review: Malcomb Holcombe ~ To Drink the Rain
August 11, 2011
By Jim Blum, FolkAlley.com

Malcomb Holcombe
To Drink the Rain

Despite his gravelly voice and tough exterior Malcolm Holcombe can touch your heart. He may poke you in the ribs to get there, but he will get there. This new album, To Drink the Rain is as spunky as it is thoughtful.

The album opens with a clear direction of Malcolm's intent - to share insight he has discovered, and to make sure you have fun hearing it. "I'm gonna put on my britches one leg at time..." We've heard that message before, but it's embellished here in the album's opener with an engaging backwoods philosophy similar to John Prine. "Behind the Number One" is a more serious message about power and freedom and the questionable distribution process for both. Malcolm seems to be implying a second message behind this song - that it is sad more of us DON'T question our lack of freedoms. Another highlight is the lighter "Reckon to the Wind."

The album's title song may be the most telling about the author: "To Drink the Rain." Holcombe is not hiding the fact that he had struggled with alcohol and anger. He is many years sober now, and much more cordial. Trying to relieve stress and disappointment can indeed be as difficult as trying "to drink the rain," but it's obvious as you listen that Malcolm decided to make the attempt. He also seems to be reaching out to us in case we might be dealing with the same struggle. This one is worth listening to several times.

Repeated listens are not hard either. The musicianship is solid and the band makes each song a romp. Luke Bulla plays fiddle and producer Jared Tyler plays Dobro. Guitarist Andrew Hardin (Tom Russell and Lucinda Williams) contributes the leads. Dave Roe (Johnny Cash) plays bass and said that he would buy his own plane ticket to record with Malcolm. Let's also give a shout out to Music Road Records, spearheaded by Jimmy LaFave and Kelcy Warren. Without these two we might not have this album.

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Mojo Magazine
CD review
August 2011

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Acoustic Magazine
July 2011
- by Julian Piper

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Allgigs Review
June 2011
- by Peter Innes

Recorded in Austin Texas and songs copyrighted to Gypsy Eyes music (youngsters, that's a tip of the hat to our Man, James Marshall Hendrix, may his glorious arse be forever perched upon scarlet cushions of the finest silk) - you kinda sense there might be something in the air. And my naive heart melts when a fellow dreamer Holcombe, my best buddy that I ain't never met and probably ain't never gonna meet, talks of our shared creed that "supports the fellowships of songwriters worldwide, through the grace of god."
American mountain music is the white immigrants' blues and here, thankfully, it's not something that's stuck away as a memento of the past, on a cobwebbed shelf next to Doc Boggs, something to be revered but not touched - no sir-ee Bob. If we acknowledge current musical movements like nu-country, nu-soul and nu-blues then this, for sure, is the birth of nu-bluegrass as a tradition that's alive, that's been dusted off, that breathes and pulses. Lucinda Williams says - high praise - that Holcombe is "an old soul and a modern-day blues poet".
Recorded in one-take without over-dubs with a crack band of Texas and Nashville hot-shots, this is (something like) his ninth album in five years. Holcombe's thick, well-travelled voice ain't so much weather-beaten as storm-damaged and "One Leg at a Time" kicks off with infectious hard-to-resist 1950s' skip-time guitar picking and fiddle-bowing, lyrically a "walk before you run" parable. A peach of a pining, country lament, "Mountains of Home", clip-clop rhythm and all, has a wonderfully sludgy, imprecisely slurred vocal that's reminiscent of the great Jimmy Reed. "Behind The Number One" is a Dylanesque dirge de-dirged into pacey uplifting modern country music with oomph, that's blessed with articulate musicianship, already a favourite that I'll take time getting to know and savour. There is something intangible about this that just feels so very right, and this fella is, maybe, a one-off, a treasure.

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Arkansas Times
5/13/11
-by Gerard Matthews

"Spellbinding" is over-used. It's a word that's been cheapened by movie trailers and slapped on the back cover of dime novels. But it perfectly describes Malcolm Holcombe's performance at the White Water Tavern last night. The audience sat in rapt attention, their jaws hanging slightly open, their brows furrowed, concentrating on what was going on in front of them and trying to figure out how they felt about it. Holcombe's style is challenging, his guitar-picking manic, his lyrics beautiful. He wore a patched-up leather jacket, worn out jeans and boots. He rocks as he plays, shifting violently (yet rhythmically) and balancing his chair alternately on its back and front legs. He shakes his head back and forth as if the sounds coming from his old beater guitar and his own weathered growl are causing some sort of seizure. Writing in this space in December of 2009, Robert Bell described a Holcombe's stage presence perfectly.

Throughout the performance, he plucked the strings so hard they rang out like a tire iron dropped on the concrete shop floor. It’s amazing that he doesn’t constantly break strings, but perhaps this owes to his considerable chops. It is rare to see such an incredible singer/songwriter who is also a stone badass guitar player. Most just strum their simple chords. Holcombe practically shreds.

Holcombe's lyrics, his rugged howl and his intricate guitar work command attention from the audience. On many occasions throughout the night he managed to make even the most dedicated bar-talkers shut the hell up and listen. The man comes alive on stage, telling stories that initially seem anything but germane, until you hear the next song and realize that every word is calculated. In the middle of the show, a friend of mine turned to me and asked, "Who do you think he sounds like?" I just shrugged my shoulders and didn't say anything. I couldn't come up with any one. "Exactly," my friend said. Holcombe is like no other.

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High Country Press
May 10, 2011
-by Jason Gilmer

Malcolm Holcombe Plays 641rpm Saturday

Singer-songwriter Malcolm Holcombe returns to Boone on Saturday to play an 8:00 p.m. show at 641 rpm.
“
The first, most obvious, observation you make when listening to Malcolm Holcombe is his voice. His guitar playing and lyrics garner plenty of attention, too, but it ’s the voice that grabs you.

Think of Tom Waits and Melissa Etheridge having a child, and that would almost capture Holcombe ’s gruff voice.

“He has a voice with a world-weary warmth that makes every word sound like poetry,” The Music Critic wrote earlier this year about Holcombe.

Holcombe, who’s living in the Asheville area, will be back in Boone at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, at 641 rpm, which is located at 691 West King Street in Boone. The cost for the all-ages show is $7.

His most recent album, To Drink The Rain, was released in February, and he’s mixing his set lists with those songs and recordings from his other seven releases.
So is Holcombe, whose music is as raw as it is good, more of a storyteller or singer-songwriter?

“I don’t even think about it one way or the other,” he said. “If you hang around the barbershop long enough, you’re going to get a shoe shine or a haircut. ”

His music has garnered critical appeal, with Rolling Stone’s David Fricke giving Holcombe’s 1999 release, A Hundred Lies, four stars. Other pundits have also enjoyed his stories and tell-it-like-it-is approach.

“Hopefully you can tap your foot to it,” Holcombe said about his new album. “It’s just another chapter in the human condition. With all of the impulses and sweat from politics to keeping bread on the table and your ass out of the gutter, it’s something we all can hopefully sink our teeth into. With life in general, it may be a little bit of music that we can pass along to people to help us keep off the edge. ”

Holcombe is touring with his acoustic guitar, but he had a great cast of musicians play on To Drink The Rain, including Johnny Cash’s bass player Dave Roe.
He recently toured Holland and Belgium with longtime sideman Jerry Tyler, who produced the most recent CD.

“I’ve been over there many, many times. Folks have been very kind to me, ” Holcombe said.

Even though the new album was just released, Holcombe is already thinking of new material.

He answered a question about his songwriting style with this metaphor: “Well, I put another coat of paint on my barn pretty regular. I always keep my paint brush wet. ”

The brush is wet, the voice is gravely and Holcombe has songs that are rivaled by any Americana or folk artist around.

For more information on Holcombe, click to www.malcolmholcombe.com and for more information on the show, call 828-865-9641 or click to www.641rpm.com.

 

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PopMatters
May 10, 2011
- by Andrew Gilstrap

Malcolm Holcombe: To Drink the Rain

Plenty of singers sound like they’ve followed a lifelong regimen of whiskey and cigarettes, but sometimes you wonder if they aren’t putting on a bit of an act. Not so with Malcolm Holcombe. By the time he’s done singing, growling, and rasping his way through a song, you can just tell: that voice isn’t merely lived in; it might have even been to the edge. His own bio even goes so far as to mention the belief among fans that they’d soon be talking about Holcombe in the past tense. Luckily, that hasn’t been the case. Holcombe’s traveled a long road since his debut record was inexplicably shelved by Geffen Records, releasing eight (as of To Drink the Rain) increasingly accomplished albums.

Whatever demons Holcombe’s fought over the years, though, he seems to be past them now. Perhaps as a result, To Drink the Rain might be the most upbeat record of Holcombe’s career. He’s still intense—even shuffling album opener “One Leg At a Time”, with its gritty homespun humor, sounds like hard-won wisdom. “Mountains of Home” is wistful, tender, and emotional. At first blush, Holcombe still seems like a force of nature, but not the singer who always sounded like he was on the verge of crushing his acoustic guitar in his hands as he played. It’s not long, though, before he’s growling through the protest song “Behind the Number One” (“There’s a land o’ milk and honey / Full o’ lawsuits left and right / Keeps me jumpin’ in the water / Drownin’ demons in the night”), and the title track is one of Holcombe’s finest examples of his gutbucket blues style to date. To Drink the Rain, though, leaves the listener with the impression that it’s a gentle record, represented more by pastoral moments like “Down in the Woods” (“Way down in the woods / Touchin’ moss so soft / On the deadwood dyin’ / In time ’s fertile arms”) than aggression.

Characterized by a full-bodied country-blues feel (aided in no small part by the work of folks like Luke Bulla on fiddle, Dave Roe on upright bass, and Jared Tyler on dobro and acoustic slide), To Drink the Rain is easily on a par with Holcombe’s most recent—and arguably some of his best—work. What’s more, it casts a spotlight on the more subtle aspects of Holcombe’s songwriting that often go unnoticed. I live near Holcombe’s stomping grounds, and there are plenty of tales of him scaring the bejeezus out of genteel arts festival crowds. As primal as Holcombe can come across on disc, he’s even more visceral on-stage, so it’s even more impressive that To Drink the Rain can capture those aspects of Holcombe’s music that initially seem at odds with one another.

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Acoustic Magazine
May 2011
- by Julian Piper

Click here for the PDF article

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Music-News.com
April 3, 2011
- by Andy Snipper
Malcolm Holcombe
To Drink The Rain

To listen to Malcolm Holcombe you ideally need to be in a position where you have no other distractions and where you can give full attention to his harsh and gravelly voice and songs full of Country/Blues history and soul.
He is soaked and almost drowned in the tradition of storytelling that has been the staple of Americana for years but he also has a freshness and honesty about his singing, far removed from the mechanically jaded voice of many in the same genre.

His sidekicks on this, his eighth, album are also the stuff of legend - bass courtesy of Johnny Cash’ bassman Dave Roe as well as Luke Bulla on fiddle and Jared Tyler on dobro (he also produced the album) and the whole album sounds as though it was recorded in single takes of each song. There are some mistakes but only natural and honest ones and the spirit of the music overrides any bum notes or missed rhythms.
Holcombe writes and sings of ordinary life and the simple things that make for heroes, the music equally simple yet heroic and the playing is often exceptional but completely understated – It really isn’t an overstatement to suggest that this is the epitome of Country Blues.
‘ Becky’s Blessed (backporch flowers)’ almost sums up his approach; a simple yet heartfelt song with sympathetic playing including some heart wrenching dobro – never overstretching or trying to make more of itself than the song deserves. ‘Where I Don’t Belong’ has a rough and forceful vocal and ‘Mighty City’ skitters and shuffles with lightness of touch and real verve along with lyrics that border on the surreal – Luke Bulla’s fiddle is sublime.

A truly superb album and full of soul and heart from a man who has refound his muse and himself.

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One Chord to Another
March 29, 2011

Review: Malcolm Holcombe – To Drink The Rain

Malcolm Holcombe: To Drink The Rain (Music Road Records, 2011)

To Drink The Rain is Malcolm Holcombe’s eight album, but the first one that I’ve heard. Well better late than never (if we start to celebrate the cliche), because this is pretty amazing stuff. Some of the rawest country-blues of the record might slide out of pop fan’s comfort zone, but this is only an issue with a couple of the songs. On most parts, To Drink The Rain easily floats into the core of my heart and songs like Becky’s Blessed (Backporch Flowers) and One Man Singin’ also finds a place to stay there. Especially Becky’s Blessed is one of the best songs of the year so far. This man is definitely a hardcore troubadour and able to write extremely captivating country, folk & blues songs and the album is full of down-to-earth & rough beauty. Maybe the album is not stylewise my closest companion, but Malcolm sounds so convincing all the time that I just have to throw all the prejudices away and just listen to one man singing.

http://www.onechord.net/2011/03/29/review-malcolm-holcombe-to-drink-the-rain/

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NO DEPRESSION
11 March, 2011
-by Alan Harrison

Gig Review
Malcolm Holcombe
Gateshead Central Bar
Friday 11th March 2011

Singer-songwriters Malcolm Holcombe and Richard Dawson are both best described as ‘acquired tastes’ and neither will ever trouble the ‘Best dressed men’ edition of GQ magazine; but it’s the music that matters and both men held the 70 or 80 fans in Gateshead’s Central Bar spellbound on a cold March evening.

Local lad Richard is candidly open about his battle with depression and uses music as his therapy. It’s always difficult and challenging to watch him perform but if you can see past his tortured expressions and a guitar held together with gaffer tape and good luck you will hear a succession of Avant-Garde songs that document his troubled life and that of his close family and friends.

In the introduction to Granddads’ Deathbed Hallucinations Richard described the song as not being very cheery even though it was littered with the old mans humorous observations.
Another noticeable thing about his performance is Richard’s ability to use words, melodies and even notes sparingly and only when absolutely necessary. This was especially evident on the beautifully brittle Black Dog in the Sky.

By comparison Malcolm Holcombe was a barrel of laughs! And there’s not many times in his life he’ll hear that sentence.

Running old man Steptoe a close race in the Sartorial Stakes Malcolm Holcombe made himself comfortable by draping his woolly hat and battered leather coat on a nearby chair before taking his seat in front of the microphone; opening the set with Going Home.

Unless you were a long time fan it was nearly impossible to make out what some songs actually were because of Malcolm’s growlingly intense delivery. At times it even looked as if he was having a fit as he forced the words out or attempted to get the perfect sound out of his well travelled Martin guitar.
For me the songs from Holcombe’s latest album TO DRINK THE RAIN were a lot warmer and accessible than on record; especially Mountains of Home which was simply outstanding, Becky’s Blessed and the powerful Comes the Blues.

Although not exactly ‘laugh out loud funny’ the drunkards lament One Leg at a Time raised a few smiles around the room too.

As the evening wore on Malcolm included a few anecdotes in between songs but didn’t always finish the sentence or have a tag line to what could have been a funny story as his mind continually wandered.

My favourite tale was when he muttered something about crossing the Tyne Bridge and the twinkling lights and reflections on the River Tyne had made him think of his wife back in Carolina. Holcombe then performed a simply magnificent version of Your Eyes Will Shine from 2006’s NOT FORGOTTEN album.

Malcolm Holcombe and his eccentric dress sense, rich rough voice, fidgety stage presence and even the way he plays his guitar so aggressively on his lap stands out like a beacon in an industry full of shiny young things. He is an individual and a one-off and the World is a better place for having him in it.

www.malcolmholcombe.com

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Clare Champion

March 16, 2011

by- Owen Ryan

Highway gig for Malcolm Holcombe

THE distinctive American burr of Malcolm Holcombe will be one of the first things the audience notices when he plays the Highway in Crusheen on Sunday.
A native of North Carolina, he has just brought out a new album and he spoke to The Clare Champion from England last week, where he has been touring.
The response to his eighth full length album has been very positive, he says. “Folks have been awful nice. This record To Drink the Rain came out over here on February 14 on Music Road Records. Folks over here have been very kind, very receptive so far on the tour. It’s very humbling and folks have been very understanding.”

His work has been lauded in the US and writing in the Arkansas Times, Robert Bell praised his lack of pretence. “These days, there are hordes of performers who truck in ‘Americana’ or ‘roots’ or ‘folk’ music. But Holcombe's art is no phony drawl, pearl-snap affectation. Nor is it sterile, suffocated by-the-numbers old-timey music, suffocated by joyless authenticity. It is the real thing. If that sounds like your cup of tea, you’d best not miss him the next time he comes to town.”

Malcolm says that despite the time he has spent travelling and all he has been exposed to, his music is still rooted in his home place. “Being from the South, in the hills of western North Carolina, it’s very hard to lose that heritage.”

To Drink the Rain is his eighth album and he wants listeners to make up their own minds on it. “It’s kind of a crapshoot man, I’ve been trying to separate the wheat from the chaff and not pigeonhole any note or song. It’s left up to whatever gestates in the heart or in the ears of anyone who has the time and the wherewithal to indulge themselves in some of this caterwauling.”

While he says he hasn’t been to Clare before, he has huge admiration for one of the county’s most famous artists. “Some of my influences would be Peter Paulin, Mary Dillon, Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Burl Ives is one of my favourites. I’m very grateful to Maura O’Connell who covered a couple of songs on her Walls and Window record. I’ve never met her but she’s just a gem of Ireland and I’m very humbled that she recorded a couple of my songs.”

The music industry is renowned for hard living and Malcolm has had his own problems, although he is now sober. “I was like an artful dodger and I ran out of tricks! Then again, we have choices and I made some poor choices and now I’m trying to sow in a more fertile field.”

Now, he’s enjoying his music and the touring. “I’m glad to be working, times are hard so it’s great to be of service. I’ve got a wonderful tour manager in Shaun Whitehouse so there’s a lot of teamwork and people have been very kind. There’s a lot of good people in this world man.”

*Malcolm Holcombe’s show at the Highway in Crusheen will kick off at 9pm on Sunday. Tickets are available at the door or by calling Frank on 086 8599957.

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Blurt e-zine
- by Grant Alden
03/11/2011


“To Drink the Rain

(Music Road)
www.musicroadrecords.com

For a time, but not a good time, Malcolm Holcombe was among the wraiths - Greg Garing, Tom House - whose commitment to song gave heft to Nashville's underground. Broken by his own weight, he repaired to the cold mountains of N.C., stapled the bits back together best he could, and went on with it.

This is his eighth release, including the debut Geffen mostly squashed and not counting some others. It was recorded over three days in Austin for Jimmy LaFave's label, and Holcombe's collaborator and producer Jared Tyler has managed as pretty an acoustic setting as such a cracked-pepper voice could hope for. Tart fiddle, well-picked guitar trailing Mississippi John Hurt. But it's the words; always has been. "My heart loses time/where has it gone?" he sings, for love. "We can't kill everybody/with the bloody hands of freedom," he offers, for commentary. It is possible to sing along, rear your head back and inflect the joy of his voice. Joy. Never thought he'd make it; damn glad he did.

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The Herald
March 4, 2011
- by Clare Robinson

Click here for the PDF article

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Backroads
March 13, 2011
-by Martin Sharman

Gig review: Malcolm Holcombe at Gateshead Central

“ Let me do a tune about birdshit…”

Never tempted to oversell himself or his songs, Malcolm Holcombe ambles onstage wearing what appears to be a tramp’s jacket, reading glasses dangling from his shirt, unkempt long and balding hair askew. The discerning viewer might notice the C F Martin logo on his guitar and conclude that, contrary to initial appearances, the man in front of us might just be making a decent living from this music lark – but then again so do some buskers…

It’s a rare busker who could compete with Holcombe’s deep, growling voice, however, nor would they be playing on a street corner for long with songs of this quality. From the tear-jerking tale of young parenthood To The Mission Baby, to the slow, soulful ballad of urban desolation From The City Comes The Blues, emotional strings are duly pulled. The mood brightens with the light-hearted One Leg At A Time, which reveals itself as a cautionary life lesson rather than the sartorial exhortation that it might at first appear.

A highly physical performer, Holcombe stalks the stage, wriggling and jerking as the music takes him, moans and groans emanating. Vigorous head shakes are matched in intensity by his violent guitar technique; thuds and twangs generate a percussive drive which fervently pushes the songs along.

Hailing from the coolly urban Asheville, North Carolina, Holcombe’s musicianship could just as easily have ended up reflecting the town’s Southern Deco ambience and taken a left turn around early period R.E.M. It’s a tribute to his love of the earlier sounds which developed in the rural tributaries of his home state that he resisted; this affection shines through in his performance.

Holcombe has a particularly surreal collection of anecdotes, from being given a lift by a drug-addled driver who lent him twenty dollars and promptly left him in the middle of nowhere (“What happened to that twenty bucks? I spent the shit out of it.”), to unsettling claims of a brief training in proctology. A propos of nothing, apparently his mom’s dried, fried apple pies are delicious; unfortunately there wasn’t time for a detailed discussion of the recipe.

This is a deceptively clever performance, variously invoking Waits, Dylan, and, if he were to spend the next ten years drinking Tennessee whiskey for breakfast on his front porch, Springsteen. The playing, whilst initially appearing to consist of various combinations of root chords, effortlessly drifts between country, blues and jazz as the songs demand. By the end, we’ve been educated in the ways of love, sex, religion and dogs, via some fine songs of Appalachian wisdom. And are a little warier of proctologists.
*************************************************************************************************

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Flyin' Shoes Review
March 11, 2011
-by Jela Webb

A chair, a man, a guitar and a microphone set the scene for a night of intensity rarely experienced in such a setting. Malcolm Holcombe was touring behind the recent release of his latest CD TO DRINK THE RAIN and this was his second visit to this venue. Early on he endeared himself to the audience by saying it was ‘nice to be back in…….’ ‘Brighton’ (as someone interjected) to which, with a mischievous grin on his face, he retorted ‘I know that!’

TO DRINK THE RAIN released on the artist-led label Music Road Records, has garnered much critical acclaim for Holcombe with many reviewers suggesting that it is his best yet. Each of the twelve tracks was recorded in one take, giving the CD a sense of immediacy and at the same time displaying true professionalism from the main protagonist and the musicians surrounding him. The songs draw inspiration from the solace Holcombe finds in family, home and nature in his beloved North Carolina. It was no surprise therefore to witness him commence with Mountains of Home and segue seamlessly into Behind the Number One.

On stage he cuts a figure who by turns is downright edgy then remarkably tranquil. He sits on a chair and I use that noun in the loosest sense because Holcombe rocks from side to side, back and forth sometimes just balancing on one chair-leg like someone taking you to the edge of a precipice only to pull back at the last minute. Sometimes he’ll hold a member of the audience in his gaze, his bluey/grey eyes unblinking and then break momentarily into the sweetest of smiles. A man of contradictions for sure, one moment singing a tender love song written for his wife, Baby Likes A Love Song and the next really attacking the guitar and snarling through To Drink The Rain.

Comparisons (to name a couple) have been made with Tom Waits and Townes van Zandt however he is very much his own man. That said, March 7th was van Zandt’s birthday so you had to be alert to notice that Holcombe finished the love song written for his wife, with a line from van Zandt’s Katie Belle Blue – did he know it was the anniversary of van Zandt’s birth or not? I suspect he did but he didn’t make any mention – just pleasing enormously with this understated mark of remembrance.

Maura O’Connell ‘who sings real nice’ has covered some of Holcombe’s material and as the evening’s performance drew to a close he said that ‘there are a couple of songs I’d like to play to you’ giving us, respectively, To The Homeland and Far Cry From Here.

Intense doesn’t really do justice to the way he performs; yes it is that but so much more. He gives so much of himself to his art he draws the audience in so much so that by the end of an 80-minute set you feel as if you have been on a roller coaster ride of emotions. He was called back by the applause for an encore and finished with two – one new and one old One Leg At A Time and a ‘little song about kids’ Straight and Tall.

Holcombe, since 2004, has been a prolific writer; those who are familiar with his back story (drink, drugs and depression) now see a man who has been redeemed by faith and love and importantly is willing to share the story of his recovery through the medium of song, on stage, without compromise.

Amazing, talented, edgy, scary, dangerous, loving, genuine, articulate, kind, unique. If he is ‘down in your woods’ make sure you seek him out – I guarantee you an unforgettable experience. Jela Webb

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The Music Critic
by The Music Critic ~ Thursday, 10 March 2011

Malcolm Holcombe: To Drink The Rain - Album of the Month - March 2011

Labels: Americana, Country, Folk

To Drink The Rain is the 8th studio album from Holcombe but I am sure that he will be as new a name to most as he is to me. Holcombe lives in the hills of North Carolina, an area that just seems to have the ability to produce artist that know how to make passionate and expressive music that is as timeless as it is magical. Just look at David Childers, Charlie Poole and The Avett Brothers if you need proof. Lucinda Williams said that Holcombe is '...an old soul and a modern day blues poet' and that he is. He has a voice with a world weary warmth that makes every word sound like poetry on this collection of 12 stunning songs.

One Leg At A Time open the album in fine style with the influence of the likes of Doc Watson evident in this guitar 'rag'. It is hard not to warm to this record immediately with a simplicity to it that extends from the lyrics to the production and some brilliant playing from the assembled cast of musicians as is evident in the relentless drive of Bobby Kallus's drums on Behind The Number One which is matched by Luke Bulla's fiddle and Jared Tyler's dobro. This is a great song with lyrics that reflects Halcombe's restless nature.

The beautiful ballad Becky's Blessed (Backporch Flowers) is one of the albums highlights, which brings out the best in Halcombe's throaty vocal drawl. Halcombe has lived the good life (or bad life depending on your point of view) and fought his demons but To Drink The Rain sees him in the most settled period of his life. At peace with himself and with his God. Often compared to Tom Waits and Bob Dylan, and you can see why these comparisons stick, he is perhaps more in the mould of Mississippi John Hurt and Townes Van Zandt but don't be fooled into thinking you have heard it all before. Oh no, Holcombe has his own way of doing things that is backed up with 50 years plus of experience to draw on. If you don't believe me, just listen to the title track and thank me later.

This is a brilliant album that has been beautifully produced by Jared Tyler. It just makes me want to see him play live so much.

www.malcolmholcombe.com

[][][][][] (5/5)

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FOOT STOMPIN'
9 March 2011
- by Andy Vocoustic

Vocoustic Promotions & interesting music promotions presents: MALCOLM HOLCOMBE + DAVY CATTANACH (unplugged)

Saturday 12th March
Peacock Visual Arts
£ 6 from 8pm

As part of the 'No More Soundcheck' series of unplugged gigs in the Peacock Visual Art, we are pleased to present Malcolm Holcombe from the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina.

Malcolm is regarded by the contemporary US and European folk/americana community as a performer, story-teller and songwriter of international stature. Few performers hurl themselves into their music with the physical and emotional abandon similar to Holcombe. He moans, grunts, groans and smacks his lips embellishing his americana-esque songs. Imagine the hurt and brusied result of a fight between John Prine and Tom Waits.

Malcolm's brilliance was obvious to a core of fans and some attentive music journalists, but so were the self--destructive tendencies that floated around this mercurial man
like wraiths. It was worrying at times that he would be added to the 'What Might Have Been' pantheon with Hank Williams, Jaco Pastorius and Charlie Parker. He is now many
years sober, performing worldwide and happily married to a woman who manages his schedule and keeps his inner garden clear for the work. He retains his quirky,
fascinating character, and he writes – in spasms of energy and clarity, producing visions that hover between earthy solidity and rustic mysticism playing with rhythmic
pounce and sings with psychological fire.

He is cryptic, demanding, polarizing, bold, passionate and free, a combination badly needed in our time of infinite trivia. He’s even more interesting for having made a remarkable journey of recovery and discovery.

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The Irish Examiner
March 5, 2011

- by Gerry Quinn

Click here for the PDF article

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The Plymouth Herald
March 4, 2011
- by staff

Escape to the country
FANS of Americana are unlikely to hear anything closer to the real deal this side of the Atlantic than Malcolm Holcombe who returns to the B Bar on Sunday, to deliver songs from this eighth full-length album, To Drink The Rain.

On his last visit early last year, he captivated the intimate B Bar crowd with a spell-binding performance of incredible intensity, which had everyone hanging on his every note and anecdote in reverential silence.

But it's not only punters who are appreciative of this inimitable acoustic troubadour who seems to incorporate each mile travelled, each experience gleaned and each cigarette smoked into his songs.

Among many in the business, Lucinda Williams is a fan. "From the first note I was drawn in," she said. "Malcolm is an old soul and a modern day poet, he is a rare find."

Hailing from North Carolina via many years in Nashville – where he was signed to Geffen in the mid '90s – Malcolm appears as a sort of sonic and visual cross between Neil Young, Tom Waits and JJ Cale.

"Late night I'd mess around with the radio dial," he says by way of explaining where he drew his first inspiration, "and pick up some strong signal playing Beatles or rock 'n' roll or something to wiggle your toes to. I watched pickers on TV, had a little help from my uncle who was a Baptist preacher, and practised when I wasn't out playing ball.

"Basically I was a butcher, hacking, flailing, hissing, howlin' and messing around. My mom would tell me to stop singing through my nose!"

His unique style has served him well as his latest offering, To Drink the Rain, proves.

Recorded over just three days at Cedar Creed Recording in Austin with a crack band of hotshots from Texas and Nashville, the 12 tracks are authentic as live recordings that strike the perfect balance between gravel and grace.

Opening track One Leg At A Time – about putting your britches on, "woke up this morning"-style – sets out the stall of the album with a positive, blues 'n' boogie feel-good vibe, some superb finger-picking guitar work accompanying that fabulous rugged voice.

Hopefully, Malcolm will find space in his set to include the highlight track of previous album For The Mission Baby. The sublime, understated Doncha Miss That Water with its driving beat, uplifting vibe and fabulously addictive melody was a particular favourite on his last visit.

Lyrically, some of his songs are autobiographical, some gleaned from a life time on the road.

"I try to speak my mind from what I've experienced personally and what I've heard from family and friends and on my travels," he says. "There's a lot of poor people, a lot of suffering and a load of injustice."

But his vision of the world and its people is inherently optimistic.

"The way I see it," he concludes, "is that we're all a work in progress. I believe all people have good inside but some get dirty and mashed.

"And I thank the Lord for the chance to find a better pathway."

The show starts at 7pm and tickets are £10, available from www.wegottickets.com/event/100379 or on the door.

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The Irish Times
March 4, 2011
by- Joe Breen

To Drink the Rain Music Road Records ****
“ Joyful and skittish” might seem at odds with the legacy image of gravel-voiced veteran singer and tunesmith Malcolm Holcombe. But the 55-year- old’s eighth solo album opens with One Leg at a Time , a delightful slice of bright-eyed boogie that attempts to set the tone for what follows. Still, it would be a bit much to expect Holcombe to keep his darker thoughts at bay for an album. He doesn’t, but there is good balance to this collection, harnessing the folkier side of blues to the bluesier side of folk, with the string-band colours of country and old time playing their part. It helps that the playing is tops, not least the work of fiddler Luke Bulla. Songs such as the rhythmically intense title track, the restless Where I Don’t Belong and the Dylanish Reckon to the Wind portray a man increasingly at ease with his rustic art and himself. See malcolmholcombe. com

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Americana UK
February 27, 2011

Malcolm Holcombe "To Drink The Rain"
Music City Records, 2011
Reviewers Rating
8

Quench your thirstHolcombe’s eighth studio album is his fourth in as many years. From 2007 onwards, Holcombe has found a new burst of creative energy and his music has simply gotten better with every new release. What we have on ‘To Drink the Rain’ is a record that celebrates Holcombe’s charismatic vocals and guitar playing as well as the traditional focus on Holcombe as an old-school troubadour lyricist. The music is sparser than earlier records, and he clearly no longer feels the need to layer post-production tricks such as the keyboards and electric guitars that he used on 2003’s ‘Another Wisdom’. To be frank, ‘To Drink the Rain’ is all the better for it and may be Holcombe’s best record to date.
‘ One Leg At A Time’ demonstrates Holcombe’s affinity for the simple things in life; there is a drunkard’s sense of triumph in the proclamation "I put on my britches one leg at a time". In spite of this, Holcombe has plenty of wisdom and opinion to offer: "There’s a land of milk and honey / Full of lawsuits left and right... We can’t kill everybody / With the bloody hands of freedom". These might be old complaints, but Holcombe delivers them with a freshness that shows they still mean something to him and reminds us they are still worth fighting.
The production on ‘To Drink the Rain’, has pushed Holcombe’s voice so far forward in the mix there is no confusing who is the star of this record - and what a voice it is. Reviewers generally rush for sandpaper, gravel and whiskey metaphors. Few opt for terms such as “beautiful” and “melodic”, but that is precisely what Holcombe manages. There is genuine tenderness on ‘Becky’s Blessed’, and on the title track the guitar playing and bass work lays an aggressive backing and Holcombe howls "There’s a hole! / There’s a hole! / There’s a hole in the ocean / A hole in the sea / A whole lot of trouble / To get me free". Throughout the record, Holcombe’s voice acts as a compelling counterpart to Luke Bulla’s fiddle playing – in fact Holcombe’s voice has a tendency to become increasingly percussive as songs develop, when it does. Often Bulla’s fiddle begins to provide a lyrical dimension to the songs. It is this level of attention to detail and musical sophistication that elevates ‘To Drink the Rain’ beyond the usual simple singer-songwriter formula of other lesser artists.
‘ To Drink The Rain’ may be Holcolmbe’s most accomplished record to date. The album’s simple and honest sound shows just how confident Holcombe is in revealing his unbridled and unrelenting musical vision to the world.

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Netrhythms
February 2011
-by David Kidman

Malcolm Holcombe - To Drink The Rain (Music Road Records)
North Carolina-born Malcolm, who's been described by none other than Lucinda Williams as a modern-day blues poet, is a genially compelling performer who seems to draw his inspiration from the dusty creeks of the home country, and sings with a gravelly tone that's like a 100% gentler version of the Tom Waits gargle. To Drink The Rain is his eighth full-length album, and continues to mine the approved vein of confident, rootsy raw Americana that he instigated around five years back following a temporary hiatus in faith.
The new album, recorded in a series of authentic one-take performances, kinda tells the story of Malcolm's rehabilitation through the process of moving back to the hills of his birth. It ain't exactly blues, but nor is it exactly any other genre, for it melds so many roots elements persuasively in an unassuming, and at times quite laid-back, manner that can belie the depth of feeling within. Malcolm's honest, laid-bare-grizzled-troubadour music is pretty much addictive, even if sometimes it seems to struggle to make an impression on first acquaintance.

As on Malcolm's previous CD, For The Mission Baby (which I reviewed just over a year ago), the support crew is first-rate, and sees the return of Jared Tyler (dobro, slide), Dave Roe (bass) and Andrew Hardin (guitar), with the addition this time of Luke Bulla (fiddle), Shelby Eicher (mandolin) and Bobby Kallus (drumkit). Maybe the carefree raggy-boogiesome opener One Leg At A Time deceives with its apparently throwaway nature, but the lazy dustbowl feel intensifies with the wistful Mountains Of Home and the distinctly John-Prine-like gait of Down In The Woods.

And yet, perhaps the most charismatic track of all is the title song, with its lusty, throaty swamp-Beefheart groove, which contrasts with the semi-spoken Comes The Blues that follows (I think I caught shades of Chris Smither in Malcolm's delivery here too). For this latter track probably best encapsulates the overall spirit of the record, which is sanguine, if at times a touch melancholy; the predominant element of Malcolm's vision is his sympathy for humankind and tolerance for whatever life throws his way during his journey through its byways. By the time you reach the closing track, the seemingly-autobiographical One Man Singin', you feel privileged to have been sharing in Malcolm's life-experiences.

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Northern Sky Online Music Magazine
February 28, 2011
- By Allan Wilkinson

Malcolm Holcombe has one of those well-worn voices that you tend not to question. You instinctively believe that he has lived the life to the full extent and that what he says actually goes, without any doubts. It's Dave Van Ronk meets Guy Clark, with a touch of Townes Van Zandt thrown in. TO DRINK THE RAIN is Holcombe's eighth album in a recording career that started way back in the mid-1980s with the now out of print TRADEMARK LP.
With a well documented and for the most part turbulent career behind him, a career dominated by many years of drinking and depression, together with the usual mixture of disappointment and disillusionment with an inconsistent music business, Holcombe has once again got together with long-time sideman Jared Tyler to record an album instilled with a new focus and creative zest. Recorded over a three-day period in Austin, Texas, with a core band of first rate musicians including the aforementioned Tyler on dobro and acoustic slide, Bobby Kallus on drums, Johnny Cash veteran Dave Roe on upright bass and Luke Bulla on fiddle, together with Shelby Eicher and Andrew Hardin contributing mandolin and acoustic guitar respectively, the songs are pretty much one-take performances, which demonstrates perfectly well their sense of immediacy.
The almost poetic marriage between Holcombe's gruff vocal and Tyler's sweet dobro, makes for good listening, particularly on the full-on bluegrass numbers such as Those Who Wander and Behind the Number One, whilst the opening song One Leg at a Time has the good-time retro feel of a Leon Redbone homage, with a lyric that suggests that through it all, he's still here, alive and kicking.
Becky's Blessed (Backporch Flowers) provides the album with one of its standout contributions, one of two much older songs, the other one being the album closer One Man Singin', both of which really ought to have been recorded sooner. Whilst Holcombe's low growl on such songs as the jazzy The Mighty City offers a little restraint vocally, nowhere on the album does Holcombe sound more convincing than on the title song, which sees the singer spitting out the lyrics like a chain saw attacking a tree.

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Listomania
(Bath, UK)
February 24, 2011
- by Charley Dunlap
Malcolm Holcombe

To Drink The Rain CD

Malcolm Holcombe is no household name and may never be — not even in most clued-in households. To Drink The Rain may be the album to get him onto the rest of those hip houses.

His is a familiar story: brilliant artist scooped up young, signed to a major label, sidelined and dropped, unleashing the all too familiar demons of destruction — until he returns to his North Carolina home and gets himself right. Through it all, he kept playing — it's doubtful he'd know any other way. This is his eighth album.

It is intimate and natural, simply recorded with a just Malcolm, double bass, minimal drums, fiddle and dobro. Chief among these is dobro player Jared Tyler, who has been with Holcombe for the last 12 years and serves admirably as producer of this album. Tyler's edgy, rhythmic dobro playing provides a huge spark throughout the album, accentuating both the blues and country sides of the music.

But if Tyler is the spark, Holcombe is the fire. For starters, he is a terrific guitarist, evidenced on the first track, One Leg at a Time, an uptempo fingerpicking extravaganza. Throughout the album his guitaristry (not always fingerpicking) is never flashy, always rhythmic, and the foundation of the music.

“Tom” and “Waits” are the words most often used to describe Holcombe's voice, but to me he sounds far more like the elder Bob Dylan, a likeness that is carried into some of the phraseology and inflection in his songwriting. His voice is not always gravelly; in Becky's Blessed his voice is almost sweet and in general a bit more articulated than Dylan's.

The songs make this all something of a Holy Trinity with his guitar and his voice. Holcombe, in the time-honoured tradition of country and blues, uses traditional melodies (including, once again, Dylan, in Reckon to the Wind) to fine effect, but his songs do not come across as imitative. Rather, they just fall very expressively into place in their genre, the genre in this case being Malcolm Holcombe.

 

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Whisperinandhollerin.com

February 2011

-by Tim Peacock

Our Rating: 9 out of 10
Currently based in North Carolina, but having squared up to Nashville and worked up a decent-sized Lone Star state following, MALCOLM HOLCOMBE is a name I’ve been recommended with increasing frequency in recent years.

An Amazon.com search reveals he’s been working pretty much none stop since around 2005, so ‘To Drink The Rain’ comes in the wake of several critically-acclaimed albums. However, with no less than Lucinda Williams referring to him as “a rare find”, Holcombe’s new record is as good a place to start as any, especially as he’s brought a team of sympathetic and highly talented Country, Folk and bluegrass players with him to Austin to fashion a truly compelling collection of songs.

Let’s get the one reservation I have out of the way first. Holcombe’s voice will sort the wheat from the chaff very rapidly indeed. Personally, I’m growing to love it, but his ravaged gravel and moonshine growl is not for the faint-hearted and his scarred, deep throat of a vocal requires some acquisition. His website is not exactly overloaded with details, but looking at pictures of Holcombe, I doubt he’s much past 45, yet he sings like a cross between Mississippi John Hurt and late period Johnny Cash. He’s certainly an old soul in his skin, but if you persevere, I believe you’ll grow to love him, especially because the lyrical truisms he rasps his way through are well worth hearing.

The fact he recorded it in Austin hardly hurts the advance notices, but trail-blazing Texan troubadours like Guy Clark and the inimitable Townes Van Zandt are getting bandied round as comparisons and it’s not hard to hear why. Hard-boiled, but poetic songs like ‘Those Who Wander’ and ‘Where I Don’t Belong’ are gripping tales of the dispossessed and heartbroken, while the semi-spoken narration of ‘Comes The Blues’ (“LA, Chicago, San Antonio...another man has left you behind/ another woman cries for a sweeter taste of life/ but those days are gone, there’s sadness in your eyes”) is as blasted and world-weary as they come. It can’t help but recall a song like Van Zandt’s nihilistic classic ‘Nothin’’ and sounds as real as landing head-first on the concrete from three floors up.

Crucially, though, there’s enough light to temper the shade. The opening ‘One Leg at a Time’ is a jaunty, playful Country-blues souped up by bluegrass-style fiddling and a ragtime rhythm section. ‘Down In the Woods’ is a deceptively pretty waltz-time ballad, while – like Townes – Holcombe can also craft songs of drop-dead melancholy beauty like ‘Reckon To The Wind’ and ‘Becky’s Blessed’. Aided and abetted by producer Jared Tyler’s gorgeous dobro and his band’s sympathetic lightness of touch, the latter especially is an affecting ode to an unsung friend of the author’s and as mellow and sincere as they com.

Built primarily around Jared Tyler (dobro, slide guitar), upright bassist Dave Roe, Luke Bulla’s fluid, Byron Berline-style fiddling and Bobby Kallus’ brushed drumming, Holcombe’s band provide a suitably potent, but restrained and largely acoustic backdrop. The sound seamlessly weaves Country with Blues and Folk with Bluegrass, but versatility is the watchword and while ‘To Drink The Rain’ is very much a Roots record, it also has space for the swaggering, low-riding grooves that form the spine of songs like the urban alienation tale ‘The Mighty City’ and the trick-turning survivor’s blues of the title track. Fittingly, it all culminates in some style, with ‘One Man Singin’’ possibly referring to Holcombe’s time as a knock-taking troubadour in Nashville (“I heard him singin’ in a local dive where the sun turns inside out”). Whether it’s definitively autobiographical is a matter for debate, but it’s as compelling as they come either way.

Americana’s highways aren’t so much lost as over-congested these days, but there’s always room for real class in any genre and Malcolm Holcombe is quite clearly a highly individual modern-day troubadour who deserves to be bumped to the front of the queue. Hitch a ride with him and see the darker side for yourself. It may not always be pretty, but it will certainly be vivid and memorable.

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BBC Review
22 February, 2011

- by Ninian Dunnett

A true roots eccentric makes hay with artful production.

As Tom Waits’ voice is to Bing Crosby’s, so Malcolm Holcombe’s is to Tom Waits’: this is a wondrous far-travelled, beat-up and leaking old instrument, all sighs and groans, growls, rasps and mutterings (and that’s just in-between the singing).
Listen to a Holcombe song and what you’re getting is personality in spades, a narrative so gritty with the noise of tough living that it rarely dips below the red on the authenticity meter. But the thing that makes To Drink the Rain worth listening to, in fact, is its artistry.

The North Carolina native has changed labels and producers as restlessly as he’s moved homes, and this time round his long-serving slide guitar player Jared Taylor has crafted a production of superb balance, buttressing and cushioning the singer’s delivery with a subtlety that belies the single-take recording. The stately upright bass of Johnny Cash’s latter-day sideman Dave Roe, busy brushes of drummer Bobby Kallus, the sweet-toned fiddle of Luke Bulla and Taylor’s graceful picking on the dobro sparkle amongst the rumble and spit like bright stitching.

Holcombe’s sentiments are as grizzled as his vocal chords, steeped in the lore of hard times and lonely travelling, but there’s an idiosyncratic poetry bedded in the lyrics: "Way down in the woods touchin' moss so soft / On the deadwood dyin' in time's fertile arms…" The appealing musical range takes in the fingerpicking ragtime of One Leg at a Time (which kicks things off with cheery brio), while the bustle of Where I Don’t Belong has a compelling story-song insistence.

But the title-track is where everything comes together: a pounding, measured blues, it finds Holcombe channelling Screamin’ Jay Hawkins to irresistible effect, his howls and hollers driving the thumping beat to a gospel-tinged climax that makes the most perfect sense of that ancient curio of a voice.

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For Folk's Sake
22 February, 2011
- by Ian Parker
Album: Malcolm Holcombe – To Drink The Rain

For those that don’t know Malcolm Holcombe, he’s an old-fashioned southern American troubadour – the way you’d draw one up in a film (actually, he’s probably not far off Bad Blake from Crazy Heart). His rugged, weathered face is complimented by long hair and killer sideburns, and he sounds like he looks – singing with a gruff voice that could plough the tobacco fields of his native North Carolina. His music is in the American folk tradition of Townes van Zandt and Levon Helm, a rich seam of country blues that can be traced back to Johnny Cash and beyond.

To Drink The Rain is the eighth album of his long, winding career that has seen him record for seven different labels. He seems to have found a home on Austin’s Music Road Records and this is the most upbeat album in a back catalogue of troubles and self-destruction. “I put my britches on one leg at a time,” he exclaims in opener One Leg At A Time, the sound of a man finally coming to terms with himself and beginning to enjoy life. Title track To Drink The Rain is a raucous celebration of a man finally ready to let that lengthy hair down.

But even allowing for a few smiles, Holcombe has spent his life singing the blues, and is not about to stop. And there are many fine examples here, such as the grating sound of Comes The Blues. Despite being championed by the likes of Lucinda Williams and Jeff Tweedy, Holcombe has remained something of a hidden gem. Now in his 50s, it’s still unclear where Holcombe’s music career might be leading, but for now he’s produced an album that sounds like a healing experience for an aging bluesman. And that might just be all he needs.

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Beat Surrender
February 21, 2011
-Simon

Malcolm Holcombe “To Drink The Rain” (Music Road Records 2011)

This album feels so effortless, the skill of the performer using a musical sleight of hand that lulls the senses with the beauty of it’s simplicity, this is Holcombe’s eighth album and has been produced by long-time sideman Jared Tyler – they know each other well and To Drink The Rain reflects that, recorded over three days in Austin TX with a seasoned band of cohorts from Texas and Nashville on-board the album is a live studio recording capturing the one-take essence of the writing and performance in their minutiae.

The opening track kicks things off with a light hearted and breezy country blues romp One Leg at a Time which came as a surprise to me I had expected something a little more austere having read Holcombe’s back story – his recent salvation from self-destructive forces was quelled by a return home to North Carolina where he opened the door to help and regained his faith in God, man and his own artistic abilities.

Close your eyes for track two Mountains of Home and for an all too brief three and a half minutes you’ll be transported to the rustic back porch of a NC homestead, indeed the whole album has that feel about it – the authenticity and sincerity of the performances unfold beautifully over the albums twelve tracks.

Lucinda Williams described Holcombe as ‘an old soul and modern day blues poet’ I’m struggling to find a more apt descriptive for him and if your not familiar with the man’s work this is a fine starting point, existing fans will lap this up.

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Pasadena Weekly
2/17/11
-Bliss


Musical mojo
North Carolina cult favorite Malcolm Holcombe emerges with new album, new label and rare SoCal concert at Coffee Gallery Backstage
North Carolina singer-songwriter Malcolm Holcombe seethes and spits out those words on the title track of his newest album, in a ravaged growl that hints at the psychic hell from which he clawed his way to health and creative renewal after years of alcohol addiction.

Long championed by fellow artists and music industry insiders, he remains something of a cult figure, referenced in the same breath as late greats like Townes Van Zandt but not likely to be seen on the Grammys any time soon. Holcombe’s battles with booze and business in Nashville may sound familiar to the point of cliché but there are welcome twists in his tale, courtesy of the lifelines tossed his way when setbacks sent him careening into near-oblivion.

His major-label debut, the outstanding “A Hundred Lies,” was funded and manufactured by Geffen, which went to the trouble of circulating it amongst a host of critics who heralded it as the work of an important new voice — only to be mystified by the label’s decision to shelve the album before the public could find it. Holcombe subsequently disappeared into his native North Carolina, another seeming casualty of corporate politics, until Hip-O stepped up and gave “Lies” a proper release in 1999.

Holcombe remained scarce, but music journos and colleagues like Lucinda Williams continued to sing his praises. North Carolina’s Echo Mountain Records released three albums between 2007 and 2009 after he finally found domestic peace and sobriety.

Longtime guitarist/Dobroist Jared Tyler hung in through many a stormy phase and wound up producing “To Drink the Rain,” Holcombe’s new album for Music Road, an Austin-based label currently enjoying some buzz courtesy of a roster of acclaimed singer-songwriters that also includes anchor Jimmy LaFave, Kevin Welch, Slaid Cleaves and former Angelenos Stonehoney.

Even more than his previous seven full-length albums, “Rain” rumbles with the feel and guitar-riffing cadence of country blues. As a poet and performer, Holcombe has some major mojo going on, but this is the sunniest-sounding recording he’s yet made; play it in sequence with his previous releases, and you can clearly discern rays of lyrical light broadening as he reclaims his life. “We can’t kill ev’rybody/ We can’t bribe ev’rybody/ Who disagrees with freedom,” he snarls on “Behind the #1,” but the overarching emotion conveyed on “One Leg at a Time,” “One Man Singing’” and elsewhere throughout “Rain” is far simpler, and more uplifting: gratitude.

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Folk and Roots (UK)
February 2011
- by David Kidman

Malcolm Holcombe – TO DRINK THE RAIN (Music Road Records MRR CD. 010)

North Carolina-born Malcolm, who’s been described by none other than Lucinda Williams as a modern-day blues poet, is a genially compelling performer who seems to draw his inspiration from the dusty creeks of the home country, and sings with a gravelly tone that’s like a 100% gentler version of the Tom Waits gargle. To Drink The Rain is his eighth full-length album, and continues to mine the approved vein of confident, rootsy raw Americana that he instigated around five years back following a temporary hiatus in faith. The new album, recorded in a series of authentic one-take performances, kinda tells the story of Malcolm’s rehabilitation through the process of moving back to the hills of his birth. It ain’t exactly blues, but nor is it exactly any other genre, for it melds so many roots elements persuasively in an unassuming, and at times quite laid-back, manner that can belie the depth of feeling within. Malcolm’s honest, laid-bare-grizzled-troubadour music is pretty much addictive, even if sometimes it seems to struggle to make an impression on first acquaintance. As on Malcolm’s previous CD, For The Mission Baby (which I reviewed just over a year ago), the support crew is first-rate, and sees the return of Jared Tyler (dobro, slide), Dave Roe (bass) and Andrew Hardin (guitar), with the addition this time of Luke Bulla (fiddle), Shelby Eicher (mandolin) and Bobby Kallus (drumkit). Maybe the carefree raggy-boogiesome opener One Leg At A Time deceives with its apparently throwaway nature, but the lazy dustbowl feel intensifies with the wistful Mountains Of Home and the distinctly John-Prine-like gait of Down In The Woods. And yet, perhaps the most charismatic track of all is the title song, with its lusty, throaty swamp-Beefheart groove, which contrasts with the semi-spoken Comes The Blues that follows (I caught shades of Chris Smither in Malcolm’s delivery here too). For this latter track probably best encapsulates the overall spirit of the record, which is sanguine, if at times a touch melancholy; the predominant element of Malcolm’s vision is his sympathy for humankind and tolerance for whatever life throws his way during his journey through its byways. By the time you reach the closing track, the seemingly-autobiographical One Man Singin’, you feel privileged to have been sharing in Malcolm ’s life-experiences.

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To Drink the Rain
Malcolm Holcombe
Backroads (UK)

February 16, 2011

- by Cate Mitchell

Being mentioned in the same breath as Townes Van Zandt is no mean feat; it suggests an over-familiarity with hard liquor, hard luck and hard-won knowledge of the other side of town. Approaching To Drink the Rain, therefore, is not without a weight of expectation – tales of suffering and calloused lives should be par for the course. Right?

Absolutely. This is an album chock-full of small -town observations. Ghosts walk close and there is a darkness that bubbles away just beneath the surface making for a fascinating aural journey. “Those Who Wander” contains echoes of Steve Earle’s outing with the Del McCoury band. “Becky’s Blessed (Backporch Flowers)” is a pleasant, lazily meandering stream of observations, while “One man singin’” is a hugely compelling true-to-life tale that somehow succeeds in skipping along jauntily despite bearing the weight of the world on its shoulders.

There is something elemental about this record; it seems, somehow, to tap into the old, weird America etched onto the wax of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. The timeless feel of some of Holcombe’s material would sit well beside the field hollers and murder ballads on the earlier compilation. The real air of a live recording is fitting therefore. Obviously, being a modern record, it lacks the hiss of reel-to-reel and incidental noise in the hot southern sun that characterised Smith’s recordings but, nonetheless, many of the tracks have the ‘one-take’ energy and excitement of a band in blistering form. The featured musicians do a sterling job switching seamlessly from vicious to pretty but always put the song first. Prominent dobro and fiddle really country things up, while judicious use of mandolin lends a backwoods, bluegrass sensibility in places.

Where Holcombe’s world-weary growl really comes into its own is on slower numbers. The Greg Brown-like “Mountains of Home” is a truly beautiful number. “Comes the Blues” sits atop an endless freight train somewhere way out west where the wind cuts waves through the wheat and the grizzled narrator takes a long, cold retrospective at the broken promises of America.

This is an album populated with subtly catchy choruses that worm their way into the consciousness. Like John Lee Hooker, Holcombe avoids obvious rhymes and wrong-foots the listener. There are unanswered questions aplenty that will draw the curious back for answers time and again. Superior stuff.

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The Daily Time
February 11, 2011
Malcolm Holcombe returns with collection of new songs and tales
By Steve Wildsmith stevew@thedailytimes.com

Until you get to know him — really know him — there’s something unsettling about singer-songwriter Malcolm Holcombe.

Maybe it’s that gritty voice, the one that calls to mind creaking boards in a backwoods cabin or the wail of a far-off train through the trees at night. In concert, it’s probably the way he performs, hunched over and hollering, growling, hissing, beating that old guitar like a man possessed and making the uninitiated wonder nervously if he’s had all his shots.

Or maybe it’s the way his brain works — which is to say, not like yours and mine. He speaks in images and analogies, bursts of randomness that seem to wander aimlessly like a car winding around the mountain backroads of his part of the North Carolina mountains. There is purpose, however, to everything he does and says — in person and in song; whether the listener can keep up, is up to them.

“It’s just a process of becoming,” Holcombe told The Daily Times this week. “There ain’t nothing new coming out of this mouth. I’m just passing along what’s been passed along to me and separating the wheat from the chaff. I still get swallowed up by the weeds, and like all of us, I’m trying to participate and reaching for the sunlight. It’s the grace of the good Lord and the kindness of others that are out there before me, clearing the path to where I can be of service, that allow me to just pass along some stories.”

His latest batch of stories, “To Drink the Rain,” may be one of his most well-rounded albums to date, and that’s saying a lot. It’s full and ripe, bursting with sound and color and a sort of contentment that Holcombe cherishes these days.

Born in Asheville, N.C., and raised in nearby Weaverville, Holcombe learned to play the flat-top guitar and joined up with a folk group called The Hilltoppers. Playing fairs, dances and shows throughout the small town of Weaverville and thereabouts, he weaned himself on folk, traditional Appalachian ballads and bluegrass.

In 1976, he drifted to Florida and in 1990, to Nashville where he worked odd jobs and soaked up as much of the business side of the industry as possible before going back to North Carolina. He’s cut several albums over the years, including one for Geffen, “A Hundred Lies,” that earned a four-star review from Rolling Stone. He’s been compared to Bruce Springsteen for the way he paints vivid portraits with his songs, turning them into haunting, brooding, moving affairs.

For years, he fought an embittered battle against alcohol, eventually surrendering several years back when he got sober. It talks about his sobriety openly on his website, and that’s by design, he said.

“Whatever we can share in our lives, whether it’s a PTA meeting at the local gas station in our neighborhood and with our friends, if we can share with each other comfortably and in a trusting manner a piece of our lives, then we do it to help somebody and to help each other,” he said. “It goes back to a buddy of mine loaning me his tiller to till up my garden; I gave him some of the vegetables out of it. It’s a two-way street, and if we help each other get up and down the road of life with our personal experiences, then so be it.

“It’s just a matter of people’s motives — what they want to share and how they share it and whether it’s for the good of all concerned. If there’s something in my experience on this planet that can be used by others to add to their journey in a good way, then so be it; whether it’s tapping their foot, clapping their hands, snapping their fingers or taking a second look within, then cool. All the better. I just try to work on forgiveness and faith and strength and being of service to my fellow man.”

One of the ways he does so is with his music. He’s never shied away from taking a stand on issues he feels are important, and “To Drink the Rain” is no different. Take the song “Behind the Number One” — “We can’t kill everybody with the bloody hands of freedom / filling up a dirty ocean with a mighty hole bleeding ...” It’s one man’s look, sang with such clench-toothed ferocity you can almost hear the veins in Holcombe’s temples throbbing, at the world’s growing problems. By album’s end, on the song “Comes the Blues,” he casts his eyes on the more personal observations: “I heard him singing in a local dive where the sun shines inside out / people come and go and stay a while / some folks listen, others don’t, but everyone is there waiting / to hear what they can take to make their lives a little better ...”

Recorded in Austin, Texas, by his long-time sideman Jared Tyler, the album was another one of those moments of “becoming” about which he talks. It marks a new partnership with Music Road Records, run by singer-songwriter Jimmy LaFave, and he thrived on both the Austin music scene (“People down there are playing hungry, just like a beehive — some of them are honey bees and some are hornets, and everybody’s trying to fly around and keep from stinging each other and work together to make some honey”) and the partnership with his new label.

“It was fun, man — just wonderful, working with people who are seasoned and kind and ready to work,” he said. “It’s a moment where you realize that it’s a we-and-us thing, everyone working together.”

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Option Magazine
February 8, 2011
By Al Maginnes

Malcolm Holcombe: To Drink the Rain (Music Road)

To be human is to be constantly engaged in “What if?” Malcolm Holcombe fans have long wondered what if Geffen had released his classic A Hundred Lies in 1996, when he recorded it. In one of those many examples of big-label idiocy, Geffen paid for the record, printed it, then did not distribute it. Holcombe left Nashville, turned his back on the big labels, and regrouped in western North Carolina, where he released several independent albums on Asheville-based Echo Mountain Records. Now, Holcombe has landed with Music Road, a collective headed by Texas songsmith Jimmy LaFave, and his first release for the label, To Drink the Rain, is the work of a man whose feet are firmly planted on the path he intends to follow.

Ray Kennedy, who produced Holcombe’s last two albums, is not in the chair this time around, and the result is a less-produced, more organic sound. Longtime Holcombe cohort Jared Tyler produces and plays guitar and dobro, and the other players are veterans of earlier Holcombe records. As a lyricist, Holcombe has always been more impressionist than narrator, and that does not change on this set. While he is capable of a soft-voiced homage to his home turf in “Mountains of Home,” he can also snarl “There’s a land of milk and honey/ Lawsuits left and right” in “Behind the #1.” In fact, this blend of home-loving humility and righteous anger at a system gone wrong gives Holcombe’s songs their edge. The musical backing and many of the sentiments in these tracks could have come from Harry Smith’s Anthology of Folk Music, but there are just as many songs that underscore the difficulty of living in this era of capitalism and technology. “Leave this land for profit/ abandon to belong,” he sings in “Those Who Wander.”

The brilliance of Holcombe’s songs, riveting live performances and a troubled early career have made him something of a legend in some circles, but his songs are not geared toward legend-making. They are celebration and testimony as durable and beautiful as the hills where they were written.

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Malcolm Holcombe plays tonight at the Grey Eagle Music Hall
Special to the Citizen-Times
Written by Mike McWilliam

ASHEVILLE — When it comes to music institutions in Western North Carolina, Malcolm Holcombe's name almost always comes up. Born and raised in Weaverville and now settled down with his family east of Asheville, Holcombe has been a music legend for decades.

“To Drink the Rain” is Holcombe's eighth full-length studio album. Cut over a few days at Cedar Creek Recording in Austin, Texas, it was produced by longtime Holcombe sideman Jared Tyler. The album's 12 tracks were recorded in one take, except for a few that took a couple of takes because the group, as Holcombe said, was having “too much fun.”

Holcombe and Tyler are set to play tonight at The Grey Eagle Music Hall in Asheville. Although “To Drink the Rain” is not set for official release until Feb. 15, fans can snatch up a copy at this show.

Question: You cut the tracks on this album in one take. Have you ever recorded an album like this before?

Answer: Yeah, most of them. Except for some earlier records … but the last few records I've been pretty fortunate to be able to get a deal going where we can just sit around and listen to competent musicians and get very creative and make a record.

Q: What are the benefits in making an album in that manner?

A: It makes it more authentic as opposed to just cookie cutter (expletive). It's something that I can live with in my own skin as opposed to a lot of contrived cacophony that spins the nickel around the radio dial.

Q: Any story behind the title “To Drink the Rain?”

A: It's the title cut and songs mean different things to different people, whether they're good or on their knees praying or just trying to get through the day and be of service to their fellow human being. I think it's a process. So the people who have been good to me and my family through the years, a lot of musicians, a lot of writers, I think we're all trying to work together to hone down being of service to each other. That's the bottom line.

Q: This was the first album you recorded at Cedar Creek Recording in Austin. How did you get hooked up with that studio?

A: I was trying to figure out with my wife how we can go ahead and be able to afford to make another record. So it took a lot of patience and creativity and people being of service to one another so (a business associate) was kind enough to mention (Austin-based Music Road Records founder) Jimmy LaFave, and Jared Tyler had worked with Jimmy before on projects, so therefore I asked Jared … and Jared made a couple of phone calls, and we just made a deal and made a plan and just worked it out.

Q: Was it a good experience making this record?

A: We had a lot of fun. I don't think we gnawed on each other's necks too terribly bad. We didn't roll around in the dirty alley in the moonlight. I think we got along pretty good. We had some fun. There was a real positive solidarity and energy.

Mike McWilliams writes about entertainment for take5. E-mail him at mpmcwilliams@gmail.com.

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Third Coast Music
February 2011
-by John Conquest

MALCOLM HOLCOMBE

To Drink The Rain

(Music Road Records)

Go to Holcombe’s website and you’ll see that he has no shortage of material for his press kit, everything from Rolling Stone (“Not quite country, somewhere beyond folk, Holcombe’s music is a kind of blues in motion, mapping backwoods corners of the heart,” David Fricke) to local papers, and, while freely admitting that I barely skimmed his coverage, my favorite of the comments I did see was from fellow North Carolinan and FAR DJ Rick Cornell (Dirty Laundry, WCOM, Carrboro, NC), “Some singers have an old soul, but Malcolm Holcombe’s has always felt downright primordial. Across the ages, he has developed a rugged state of grace that’s all his own.” After bouncing around record labels, Holcombe’s 10th, including a 1985 LP which, for some reason, rarely gets mentioned, is on the most sympathetic yet. Recorded in single takes at Cedar Creek, superbly produced by longtime sideman (dobro, acoustic slide and harmony vocals) Jared Taylor and featuring Dave Roe, of Johnny Cash’s last band, on bass and Andrew Hardin playing lead acoustic guitar on two of the 12 tracks, all new or previously unrecorded originals, this is Holcombe’s most perfect and authentic iteration of his reinvention of country blues, an album so solid that it’s invidious to separate individual tracks from the whole. However, those who know of Holcombe’s self-destructive history are likely to pick out the title track. It’s not just the honesty, that’s been a constant throughout his career, but the elegance with which he conveys it. For a man you can barely understand when you’re talking to him, Holcombe is rivetingly articulate behind a microphone. JC

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Lonesome Highway
CD review
January, 24 2011

Malcolm Holcombe 'To Drink The Rain' Music Road
Something of an old hand after several albums. Holcombe has again brought his craggy well-lived in voice and philosophical song into the public domain. Those acquainted with Holcombe's previous work will be again happy have more of it to make their own. That he has been able to continue making albums, mostly on different labels, is something to be thankful for, especially when they are as good as this. Here he is backed by a collection of sympathetic players such as Dave Roe and is produced by Jared Tyler. The setting is largely acoustic and natural with subtle playing that allows the fiddle, upright bass, unobtrusive drums, dobro and acoustic guitar the space to make an understated but rich musical tapestry. This is obvious on the bluegrass tinged Behind The Number One or Down In The Woods. Comes The Blues draws from another well, one that Holcombe's voice and musical direction accommodates easily, a slow talking blues. He is a songwriter and singer much praised by the likes of Lucinda Williams and Mary Gauthier both of whom write their songs from a very personal and also observational viewpoint and using a blend of roots music to make them believable. Becky's Blessed is a compassionate portrait of another person humanity. Those Who Wander is typically understanding of the rover and their restlessness. Where I Don't Belong continues that theme in a striking uptempo setting. Reckon To The Wind is more reflective but equally memorable. The closing song sums up Malcolm Holcombe. One Man Singin' closes what may be one of his finest albums, one that fans will enjoy and those who have never discovered Holcombe before will find some new music that will make an impression that will last.

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Folk Radio UK
14 January, 2011

When I first heard Malcolm Holcombe’s latest album, To Drink the Rain, I was transported down a long legacy of Country Blues singers calling to mind Chris Smither, Levon Helm and Townes Van Zandt. He has a voice that can’t lie, it’s been drenched and intoxicated by an eventful life that very nearly led him down the same path of Hank Williams! This provides the essence of his songs as well as the testament which can be heard in the dirt road of his voice.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written this week about singers ‘moving out to the sticks’ as we like to say here. In the case of Malcolm Holcombe this connection gets better. I’ve just reviewed Kevin Welch’s latest release and wrote about him breaking from the commercial hub for the hills. Likewise, Holcombe follows suit and finds solace in the North Carolina Hills. Also, their new musical refuge can be found in the form of Music Road Records. A lable that has grabbed my interest in a big way. The Austin label is spearheaded by singer/songwriter Jimmy LaFave, recording engineer Fred Remmert, and investor Kelcy Warren, who agreed to become Malcolm’s new musical home.

Like Welch, Malcolm Holcombe seems to have a lot to rejoice about on this album. Makes you wonder how heavy that burden he was carrying was that bordered on self-destruction. It was enough to make people jump at the news of him making a new album. Bass player and legendary veteran member of Johnny Cash’s last band, Dave Roe, new it was a big deal and cancelled a session at short notice to make it for the recording, one, he stated, that was worth fighting for! After listening to the album, I can only agree. It has that real feel authenticity that is often lacking in music today but is something you can’t conjure up, you have to have lived it! The twelve track one-take performances on this album are testimony to a great singer and what makes great music.

The opening track kicks off the album with a great big grin in the form of One Leg at a Time, a great rag time blues number that breaks it down real simple: put on those britches one leg at a time. This track zips along in a rejoicing way, a nice contrast to what follows with Mountains of Home, a slower country waltz that reminded me of Levon Helm’s Poor Old Dirt Farmer.

The solid delivery throughout this album by Holcombe who sounds like a man in spiritual revelation is backed up by equally strong conviction from Dave Roe on bass, fiddler Luke Bulla, drummer Bobby Kallus, and Jared Tyler’s dobro. They all play their part in accentuating the delivery! On To Drink the Rain this is probably no stronger when Holcombe tells of his struggle to set himself free from his burdens. It also reflects on his strength and conviction to see it through. Glimpses of the land of milk and honey are throughout the album although not in a blatant way but you can’t escape the fact that Holcombe needed a revelationary experience to drag him up from the bottom.

The highlights are many, it’s not an album you want to dissect. It’s about the sum of the whole and to enjoy it to it’s fullest you really want to take the time to listen to it in its entirety. There are accents of change and subtle twists, enough contrast in pace to keep it a great listen in one sitting. Becky’s Blessed gets the sentimental accentuation of a beautiful slow dobro from Jared Tyler whilst Those who Wander picks the pace up but maintains that grace with the help of Luke Bulla’s fiddle and the occasional uplifting sound of Shelby Eicher’s mandolin. The Mighty City has an almost Country Jazz feel on guitar. A very nice track that is perfectly executed, pretty spectacular for a one-take recording! You can sense the connection Jared has with Holcombe. His production efforts on the album are perfect.

Malcolm Holcombe could easily have followed in the footsteps of so many others such as Hank Williams…he didn’t need to fight to get there. Instead, he has proved he’s a fighter and this album is a testament to his courage.

Folks in the UK now have a chance to see him, as Malcolm heads out on his UK / Ireland Tour in March this year.

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