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No Depression has been the foremost journalistic authority on roots music for well over a decade, publishing 75 issues from 1995 to 2008. No Depression ceased publishing magazines in 2008 and took to the web. We have made the contents of those issues accessible online via this extensive archive and also feature a robust community website with blogs, photos, videos, music, news, discussion and more.

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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. [...]

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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. [...]

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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 [...]

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From the Blogs

  • CD Review - I See Hawks in L.A. "Mystery Drug"
    Cinematic and atmospheric Alt-Country After nearly 50 years as a music fan and 15 as a reviewer I still get excited about discovering new bands and having my breath taken away by songs and tunes that I’ve not heard before. I was aware of I See Hawks in L.A. but only owned 3 tracks on VA compilations when this album arrived, so was only mildly interested at t […]
  • CD Review - John Reischman "Walk Along John"
    As a west coast Canadian, bluegrass has always seemed like an exotic musical form.  When I hear it, I think of mountains, forests, rivers, and a rural lifestyle that has long past and gone.  Artists like Ralph Stanley and the Monroe Brothers loom like Biblical characters in my imagination, leathery, rugged and indisputably American. In the same way that I al […]
  • CD/DVD Review - Leonard Cohen "Live At The Isle Of Wight"
    Good new for those awaiting the release of more old Leonard Cohen from the days when he was still depressed and very much on the edge. In 2009, a CD/DVD package was released on Columbia of a concert that took place on The Isle Of Wight for the English version of Woodstock in 1970. Both the CD & DVD are complete with many charming Leonard songs from his s […]
  • An Interview with Bahhaj Taherzadeh of We/Or/Me
    We/Or/Me is Bahhaj Taherzadeh, a Chicago-based, Irish-born artist whose music has quietly and gradually been attracting the attention of critics over recent years. Jon Martin calls it “the soundtrack to your most quiet moments”, Sean Michaels says, it's a salve and a peace, and Robin Hilton at NPR has been a consistent advocate of the “wise and slightly […]
  • A Double Shot of Southern Comfort With Tom Petty and the Tontons
    The Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama, isn’t all about the headlining acts such as Kings of Leon and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The pride of Gainesville, Florida, Petty had sort of the home-field advantage Saturday night on the Hangout Stage, playing just one state over and practically a direct Interstate-10 shot from Heartbreakers… […]
  • CD Review - Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters "Just For Today"
    Just For Today Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters It's Ronnie Earl's band, but he doesn't dominate it. Recorded live at a couple of venues in his home state of Massachusetts,the Stony Plains release is a seamless blend of jazz, soul and r&b by a band of seasoned vets comfortable enough with one another to have an intense musical conversation […]

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