Press release from White Horse Black Mountain:
Attempting to describe a Malcolm Holcombe performance in mere words is an exercise in futility. The combination of earthiness and mysticism, directness and enigma, sweetness and grit is something that can only be fully absorbed first hand. The intensity can be almost harrowing as Holcombe flings body and soul into his self-penned songs. The acclaimed Weaverville native and Swannanoa resident performs at the White Horse Black Mountain on Friday, December 16 at 8 p.m.
There was a time when making advance plans to see a Malcolm Holcombe show might have been a bad bet. While he was hailed as a deeply original songwriting talent in Nashville, owner of rasping yet expressive vocal delivery reminiscent of a mountain Howlin’ Wolf and a unique rhythmic guitar style, he was also notorious for erratic and self-destructive behavior.
After a near miss with major label success and a brilliant debut album that Geffen Records held back, he moved back to North Carolina to reflect and repair. Now, with his hell-raising days behind him, centered and sober for many years, Holcombe has emerged, brilliance intact, as an artist who’s seen what hides in the dark corners, confronting life’s messiness with passion, a sense of spiritual grounding and the fearlessness of an Old Testament prophet.
Last year year Holcombe released a brilliant career retrospective, The RCA Sessions, featuring re-recorded versions of songs penned between from 1994 and 2014. His newest album (Holcombe’s fourteenth), Another Black Hole, finds the artist lasering in with typical razor-sharp insight on the human condition, especially on the margins of contemporary America. He’s philosophical about the chances of a new album of songs in the current climate of short attention spans and diminishing revenues. “They’re free to like it or change the CD or completely ignore it”, Holcombe says. “It all depends on how bad their conscience is.”
Show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 advance/ $15 door.
Advance ickets available online at
http://www.whitehorseblackmountain.com
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