Jolie Holland
Springtime Can Kill You

THE REVIEW

I sat on the veranda.
I left the house door open to let in just a piece of starry sky (the vast subalpine Texas sky)
And I wait.
The appearance of a silhouette, in an old pair of denim overalls.
Or wrapped in a satin mini, a gardenia and a sad song in her hair.
Light and seductive, the little stories surrounded by soft sounds emerge one after the other from the house.
And that delicate voice, streaked with a secret unease. Tonight so close it seems to be sitting next to me.

I think about how long a moment of peace can last, how much storm it wants to announce. Or is able to narrate.
I think about the waiting.
The desire to change the scene with a simple gesture.
Play.
And in front of the eyes, the suffocating vertical perspectives of your city give way to expanses of open and boundless spaces.
Or to the magic of a place unknown but intimate.

I think about the first time I read about her.
One of the pages more light and delightful, full of surreal grace, among the hundreds I've skimmed through in Debaser.
The impressions contained in that page, in the end, are also valid for this third album by Jolie Holland.
Which does not contain, however, not even an episode of “that vein of madness and odd improvisation” that peeped in the previous Escondida.
But it moves, acoustic and languid, with a slow, dense intensity.
Drawing her very private interior landscape, capable of projecting one even for me.

Here, on this imaginary porch, while I await that silhouette.
Trying to guess which version, between the revisited country blues and the soft smoky jazz, I will see appear.
But it is likely that, if it ever should arrive, it will surprise me.
Wearing, with the apparent simplicity that is one of the forms of ''elegance”, a garment timeless.
Like the 12 songs of “Springtime Can Kill You”.

Jolie Holland : Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Arranger, Mixing, Art Direction, Whistle (Human), Producer
Carvill Wallace: Harmony Vocals
Ara Anderson: Horn (Baritone), Organ (Pump)
Brian Miller: Guitar, Percussion, Bass (Electric), Glockenspiel, Guitar (Electric), Fender Rhodes, Piano
Keith Cary: Tuba, Electric Upright Bass, Hawaiian Guitar, Bass (Upright), Lap Steel Guitar, Cello
Kare Klaire: Harmony Vocals
Olive Mitra: Bass (Electric)
Peter Musselman: Accordion, French Horn
Sonny Smith: Organ (Hammond)
David Dondero: Vocals