Photo by Tim Duffy
Having recently signed to Jagjaguwar, Lonnie Holley announces his new album, MITH, to be released on September 21st. The expansive American experience Lonnie Holley quilts together across MITH is both infinite and finely detailed. Holley’s self-taught piano improvisations and stream-of-consciousness lyrical approach have only gained purpose and power since he introduced the musical side of his art in 2012 with Just Before Music, followed by 2013’s Keeping a Record of It. But whereas his previous material seemed to dwell in the Eternal-Internal, MITH lives very much in our world — the one of concrete and tears; of dirt and blood; of injustice and hope.
Across these songs, in an impressionistic poetry all his own, Holley touches on Black Lives Matter in ‘I’m a Suspect’, Standing Rock in ‘Copying the Rock’ and contemporary American politics in ‘I Woke Up in a Fucked-Up America,’ the lead single being shared today along with an accompanying video. A storyteller of the highest order, he commands a personal and universal mythology in his songs of which few songwriters are capable — names like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joanna Newsom and Gil Scott-Heron come to mind. Watch the official video for Lonnie Hollay’s ‘I Woke Up in a Fucked-Up Amercia’ below.
MITH was recorded over five years in locations such as Porto, Portugal; Cottage Grove, Oregon; New York City and Holley’s adopted hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. These 10 songs feature contributions from fellow cosmic musician Laraaji, jazz duo Nelson Patton, the late visionary producer Richard Swift, saxophonist Sam Gendel and producer/musician Shahzad Ismaily.
Later this month, Lonnie Holley will tour with Animal Collective across the U.S.
Lonnie Holley online:
https://www.lonnieholley.com/
https://www.facebook.com/LonnieHolley/
