Lonnie Holley - Oh Me Oh My [Clear Blue Vinyl]

Jagjaguwar

£23.71

Format: Coloured Vinyl LP
Catalogue No.: JAG437LP-C1
Barcode: 0656605243733
Release Date: 10 Mar 2023
Genre: International

 ‘Oh Me Oh My’ is both elegant and ferocious. It is stirring in one moment and a balm the next. It details histories both global and personal.
 Lonnie Holley’s harrowing youth and young manhood in the Jim Crow South are well-told at this point - his sale into a different home as a child for just a bottle of whiskey; his abuse at the infamous Mount Meigs correctional facility for boys; the destruction of his art environment by the Birmingham airport expansion. But Holley’s music is less a performance of pain endured and more a display of perseverance, of relentless hope.
 Intricately and lovingly produced by LA’s Jacknife Lee (The Cure, REM, Modest Mouse), there is both kinetic, shortwave funk that call to mind Brian Eno’s ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ and the deep space satellite sounds of Eno’s ambient works. But it’s a tremendous achievement in sonics all its own.
 It’s also an achievement in the refinement of Holley’s impressionistic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. On the title track which deals with mutual human understanding, Holley is able to make a profound point as ever in far fewer phrases: “The deeper we go, the more chances there are, for us to understand the oh-me’s and understand the oh-my’s.”
 Illustrious collaborators like Michael Stipe, Sharon Van Etten, Moor Mother and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver serve as not only as choirs of angels and co-pilots to give Lonnie’s message flight but as proof of Lonnie Holley as a galvanizing, iconoclastic force across the music community.
 Lonnie is a prolific and celebrated visual artist and will receive a lifetime achievement award from the American Folk Art Museum in May.
 Live dates throughout 2023, including appearances at the Royal Academy in London and Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee.
 LP also available on Clear Blue coloured vinyl.

Tracklisting
Testing
I Am A Part Of The Wonder
Oh Me Oh My
Earth Will Be There
Mount Meigs
Better Get That Crop In Soon
Kindness Will Follow Your Tears
None Of Us Have But A Little While
If We Get Lost They Will Find Us
I Can’t Hush
Future Children