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Rating: "The river flows quietly, the girl is there watching the leaves gently floating downstream, they are yellow, green, or amber. The girl is wearing a long skirt. The edges of the skirt are now dirty. A gentle breeze caresses the few old elms left. The girl cannot smile, the smile has disappeared from her face. Only the sound of a sad guitar. Only that sound is her playmate. She thinks she wants to die. She doesn’t know if this thought is true or a product of her naivety. She just thinks that what she wants is to die. Everything in her is blues. The good old blues played by those colorful ladies of two centuries ago. The blues that black nannies used to play and sing to those white children with rosy and healthy cheeks and clothes made of lace and frills. She has a photo in her hand. It's a picture of her beloved. He has gone far away, and it’s uncertain if he will return to kiss those little pink lips or look into those eyes that turn gray at sunset. The girl has headphones on. Inside the headphones is sad music. The same sound of those sad guitars. The only playmate. At the edge of the river, a catalpa."
"Catalpa" is the first album by Jolie Holland, released in 2003 for Anti Records. First of all, it must be noted that the catalpa is a flowering plant belonging to the bignoniaceae family and is mostly found in sub-tropical areas, though sometimes it can be found in temperate zones. From this first album, Jolie Holland demonstrates a particular interest in American popular music, indeed featuring various country, folk, jazz, and blues elements skillfully woven with lyrics of modern and at times nihilistic flavor, yet never losing gentleness and femininity. Just think of pieces like "I Wanna Die" and "The Littlest Birds," where a certain lightness takes us to territories where, hidden beneath gentle flowers, the ground can collapse under our feet at any moment. Or to moments like "Wandering Angus" or "Catalpa Waltz," where it seems like playing chase among the hanging clothes and skinning your knees when falling. Small and simple emotions.
This album caught the attention of Tom Waits and was nominated for the prestigious Short List Music Prize. An album essentially produced in an accredited musician's living room and initially distributed in few copies among friends but then passed from hand to hand, it eventually gained some prestige in the underground scene in Houston, Texas, where Jolie was born in 1976. Besides a writing style that is somewhat classical yet still lucid and introspective, Jolie Holland's exceptional voice stands out, which closely resembles the best blues or country voices of the early last century. Certainly, if it cannot be classified as a masterpiece, this album can comfortably be placed among the best debut albums of the current decade. And Holland's subsequent albums, "Escondida" in 2004, "Springtime can Kill You" in 2006, and "The Living and the Dead" in 2008, demonstrate an intimate and crystalline talent.
"The river flows quietly. A stranger appears from the other side of the river. The girl waves. The stranger returns the greeting. Years may have passed. Seasons may have gone by. But now she smiles. Yes, now the girl smiles."
- Alley Flowers
- All the Morning Birds
- Roll my Blues
- Black Hand Blues
- December, 1999
- I Wanna Die
- Demon Lover Improv
- Catalpa Waltz
- The Littlest Birds
- Wandering Angus
- Periphery Waltz
- Ghost Waltz
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Alley Flowers (05:01)
Some people say you got a psychadelic presense
Shinin in the park with a bioluminescense
Down these city streets I see you comin'
From afar and I know
In this world ain't nobody's
Got the shine like you
Got to shine in this world
Ain't nobody's got the shine
Like you got to shine
In this world
Nobody sings like Mary Sue Bell
Nobody prays like Willie MacTell
Nobody walks a mile in my stolen shoes like I do
In this world ain't nobody's
Got the shine like you
Got to shine in this world
Ain't nobody's got the shine
Like you got to shine
In this world
I still miss my lonesome lover
And I cain't find no single other
To take his empty place in my heart of hearts
I told him
In this world ain't nobody's
Got the shine like you
Got to shine in this world
Ain't nobody's got the shine
Like you got to shine
In this world
The ghost of Shakespeare's on the street
Corderoy hat layin at his feet
Howlin in the harp these dirty city blues fallin hard
In this world ain't nobody's
Got the shine like you
Got to shine in this world
Ain't nobody's got the shine
Like you got to shine
In this world
Zora Neale Hurston told her story
And they kicked her out of new york city
Just like jesus christ in gallilee like I said
In this world ain't nobody's
Got the shine like you
Got to shine in this world
Ain't nobody's got the shine
Like you got to shine
In this world
Some people say I got a psychadelic presense
Shinin' in the park with a bioluminescense
Down these city streets I see you comin'
From afar, and I know
Ain't nobody's got the shine
Like you got to shine in this world
Ain't nobody's got the shine
Like you got to shine in this world.
10 Wandering Angus (07:21)
( Words by W.B. Yeats, Music by Brian Miller )
I went out to the hazelwood
Because a fire was in my head
I Cut and peeled a hazel wand
And hooked a berry to a thread
And when white moths were on the wing
And moth-like stars were flickering out
I dropped a berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout
When I had laid it on the floor
And went to blow the fire aflame
And something rustled on the floor
And something called me by my name
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossoms in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And vanished in the brightening air
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands
I will find out where she has gone
And kiss her lips and take her hand
And walk through long green dappled grass
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon
And the golden apples of the sun
12 Ghost Waltz (03:53)
Broken by the silence
That echoed in my heart
I couldn't help waving
When the waves rushed my way
And the world tilted over
I saw in my dreams
Things aren't the way
I hoped they would be
You are so kind to be civilized
Don't think that I haven't noticed
'Cause I've been too sad to think
And too sick to care
But someday I'll meet you in the cold midnight air
I've been a ghost in houses I've loved
I've been a stranger to heaven above
But as for the world below
This is the one I know
My poor beloved home.
You are so kind to be civilized
Don't think that I haven't noticed
I've been too sad to think
And too sick to care
But someday I'll meet you in the cold midnight air
I've been a ghost in houses I've loved
I've been a stranger to heaven above
But as for the world below
This is the one I know
My poor beloved home.
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