Catalpa

Description

Product description JOLIE HOLLAND Catalpa (2003 Dutch pressed 12-track CD album featuring the debut album from the founding member of The Be Good Tanyas picture sleeve inlay) .co.uk Catalpa was among the most stunning debuts of 2003 and word quickly spread beyond her San Francisco home of this strikingly talented singer who sounds like Billie Holiday covering Cat Power versions of Appalachian folk songs. When Holland made these recordings she hadn't set out to make an album at all; some tunes were demos and others were simply recordings made to teach her songs to potential accompanists. Holland helped found Canadian alt-folk act the Be Good Tanyas, and, although she left them due to creative differences, her music is similar to that of the Tanyas--just stranger, sparser, and more haunting. The most apt reference point might be the 1960s folk singer Karen Dalton, but Holland's voice is so strong and sweet the nearest analogue might actually be Van Morrison circa 1968. Her voice floats about as the loveliest bumblebee in flight on "All the Morning Birds," while the ghosts of Bessie Smith and Geechie Wiley are channelled on the acoustic blues stomp "Black Hand Blues". --Mike McGonigal