EMPLOYEE PICKS -- THAD

Thad's Employee Pick
Jolie Holland - The Living and the Dead

Hi there! My name is Thad, I work here at the ‘Prints. I really enjoy the new album from Jolie Holland, titled The Living and the Dead put out by the wonderful folks at ANTI Records, and think you might want to give it a listen. Sure am glad I did. Have been a fan of Ms. Holland’s work after being exposed to her previous solo effort, released a couple of years ago, and have since dug into her back catalog and work in various projects. Jolie has a genuine feel to her vocal delivery, refreshing to me personally in our fast-paced day-to-day pushed onward by bright lights and plastic. A gentle smoky tone (think Lucinda Williams, only not so aggressive) to her voice along with a round Texan accent (which I find delightful) shaping some of her words, making her phrasing more expressive with respect to the lyrical content and mood of the songs on this record. The music is undoubtedly American, in the best way. Songs of loss, hope and travel. A consistent mellow feel throughout this one, and I have found it great for my quiet times, of which there are unfortunately few. The cast backing her up on this record is nothing less than phenome al, too. M. Ward is all over this thing, along with his usual drummer and Marc Ribot playing some intriguing and tasteful lead guitar. If you are unfamiliar with either Marc or M., I highly suggest digging into their work after you give The Living and the Dead a listen. Here’s the deal, if you listen to 3 minutes of the opening track of this CD (“Mexico City”) and don’t like the hell out of it, then I won’t ask you to listen any further. This record is not for you. Which would not make you a bad person, just thought I’d give you my two cents on new music I like. If you DO sit down with The Living and the Dead and DO like it, allow me to suggest these albums you might dig, too:
    - Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
    - Drive By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark
    - Willie Nelson (w/ Daniel Lanois) - Teatro
    - Ryan Adams - Cardinology

Posted on November 5, 2008