Artist: Malcolm Holcombe
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #73 Jan-Feb 2008
Malcolm Holcombe – An appalachian ghost story
I’ve never met Malcolm Holcombe, but he used to call me late at night. The phone would ring in the hours between midnight and 2 a.m., and I wouldn’t pick up. Calls at that hour normally involve romance, intrigue or tragedy. In the late 1990s, the first two possibilities weren’t possibilities. I would have needed [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #57 May-June 2005
Malcolm Holcombe – I Never Heard You Knockin’
Some singers have an old soul, but Malcolm Holcombe’s has always felt downright primordial. Across the ages, he has developed a rugged state of grace that’s all his own. Such gifted players as Greg Leisz, Jerry Scheff and Stuart Duncan appeared on his last two records, but decorating Holcombe’s sinewy, fiercely spirited music is putting [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #45 May-June 2003
Malcolm Holcombe – Another Wisdom
Malcolm Holcombe’s late-’90s release A Hundred Lies struck with the force of a revelation. Holcombe’s loose-knit narratives, delivered in his grainy, gritty voice, hearkened back to such singer-songwriter landmarks as Guy Clark’s Old No. 1 and Townes Van Zandt’s Live At The Old Quarter. Those who heard it knew we had gotten in early on [...]
Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #41 Sept-Oct 2002
Malcolm Holcomb & Valorie Miller – The Cave (Chapel Hill, NC)
Musicians who play the Cave on a July night earn every penny they make. The humidity off the street slides in the front door and through the cracks in the wall of this basement-level bar, while crashes and shouts drift in from the pool tables in the rear. You seize the stage or you’re wallpaper. [...]
Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #39 May-June 2002
Malcolm Holcombe / Valorie Miller – The Cave (Chapel Hill, NC)
It’s a tough Friday night crowd at the Cave — tanked-up, restless and loud. It’s a tougher duo onstage, though; and unlike much of their audience, they’re focused on where they are and where they’re going. They’ll succeed tonight because of that focus, and because of the inspiration they so obviously find in each other. [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #25 Jan-Feb 2000
Malcolm Holcombe – A Hundred Lies
Virtuous patience is sometimes rewarded. It’s taken almost three years for this debut from North Carolina’s Malcolm Holcombe to be released, so it seems fitting that it took a few trips through the record for everything to click. With the exception of Holcombe’s gruff voice, all whiskey and wood smoke, A Hundred Lies is as [...]
