BGS 5+5: Jolie Holland

Artist: Jolie Holland
Hometown: Houston-bred, LA-based
Latest Album: Haunted Mountain
Personal Nicknames (or rejected band names): They say you can never nickname yourself. Ones that have come to me fair and square are Soup Kitchen, bestowed by the great author Vanessa Veselka, because every time I stayed in her basement on tour I’d cook for the household. And I had the nickname Jewelweed for a minute, because some friends standing nearby pointed out some jewelweed growing, and I thought they’d called my name.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

There are so many beautiful moments to remember. I enjoy being a “sideman” more than being in the spotlight. I’m a musician and a writer, and never was interested in performing, per se. I remember doing free improv on violin with a small trio at a flop house in Austin, Texas while some circus performers played with fire and danced. It wasn’t a show, just artists being together. My Wine Dark Sea band was really fun, a loud, chaotic band, but full of some of the most sensitive and wild musicians. I recently got to play a three-night residency with Jim White on drums, Adam Brisbin on baritone guitar, and Ben Boye on piano. It was like being a little tornado in a hurricane. So much motion and power.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I came to music after I was deep in visual art, which really centers originality. So I came to music with that lens. It literally took me decades to understand that not everyone is interested in that kind of ethos. A lot of people are happy staying in one or two related genres. But for me, I always have more questions.

What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?

I have basically received no advice in my career. It’s been almost impossible to find trustworthy mentors. So I’ve just watched other people I admire and tried to learn from them. I love seeing how open-hearted and generous both Boots Riley and Marc Ribot are with their audiences. Both of them are political organizers, so that makes sense. They regard their position on stage as a place from which they inspire action and movement. I regard my audience as my collaborators, in many ways. We need each other.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I love to cook with or for the musicians I love. I’m imagining making a jelly roll for Jelly Roll Morton. My great uncles were pimps who lived 6 blocks from Jelly Roll Morton at the same time he was pimping. So I always imagine they must have known each other. Their little sister, my grandmother, passed for white and moved to North Louisiana to get away from the mafia. I wonder if he would have liked this jelly roll I once made with a genoise sponge, orange blossom water in the whipped cream, and a bitter marmalade I made with Seville oranges from my neighbor’s yard.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I feel like this question is important, but I’m answering it sideways: Why do a lot of people assume all songs are autobiographical? I come from the perspective that lyrics are literature, and a song can be a one act play. Songs can be fiction, drama, and not just memoir.


Photo Credit: Chris Doody

LISTEN: The Hackles, “The Show Goes On”

Artist: The Hackles
Hometown: Astoria, Oregon
Song: “The Show Goes On”
Album: A Dobritch Did as a Dobritch Should
Release Date: November 8, 2019
Label: Jealous Butcher Records

In Their Words: “‘The Show Goes On’ is an homage to and a reflection on the life of Bulgarian-born circus impresario Al Dobritch. The song arose from a circus-themed song challenge that sent me down a ‘Circus Circus’ research rabbit hole. Deep in that hole I discovered Al Dobritch, whose byzantine life got me thinking about the interaction between self-determination and outside, decisive forces in all our lives. It was recorded by us and Adam Selzer at The Rope Room studio in our hometown of Astoria, Oregon. Luke’s guitar & James Owen Greenan’s pedal steel converse, Cory Gray’s organ elevates, Gabrielle Macrae’s vocals elaborate, Olaf Ydstie’s drums are the train that goes off the cliff, and Adam Selzer’s percussion and mixing cause everything to make sense.” — Kati and Luke, The Hackles


Photo credit: Courtesy of HearthPR/Lauren Jacobson