The Basement, Sydney NSW
11th February 2009

Jolie Holland last visited these shores in 2006 and on that tour she was accompanied by a guitarist and drummer who provided a suitably acoustic and jazzy feel to her songs. This time she fleshed out her band and on the back of her recently released The Living And The Dead album she delivered a more varied and satisfying performance.

In support were The Smallgoods who hail from Port Fairy on the coast of Victoria. Playing as a stripped down three piece the brothers Franklin and guitarist Ben Mason started their set with an audience silencing a cappella, their three voices harmonising and weaving together effortlessly. The Smallgoods kept things sparse and minimal with their twin guitar, drums and keyboard approach and it worked extremely well. It served to highlight the beauty of their voices and their songs of driving to the city, surfing and watching the stars. Theirs is a 60s tinged sound akin to Crosby Stills and Nash, Simon and Garfunkel and more recently Eliott Smith. In light of the recent success of Fleet Foxes these lads should garner some well deserved attention for their indie folk tunes.

A fairly sparse crowd greeted Holland as she took the stage with her band. Featuring Rachel Blumberg on drums (Decemberists, M Ward, Bright Eyes) plus a guitarist and bassist, they created a warm and restrained backdrop for Holland’s songs of lost love, wasted lives and troubled friends. Between songs Holland and the band lightened the mood with a few jokes, totally against the tide of her heart wrenching music but somehow important as they gave a balance to the darkness of her songs.

The Living And The Dead dominated the set list and provided some of the highlights of the evening. ‘Corrido Por Buddy’ in particular was a tender tribute to a friend of a friend who succumbed to addiction and was unrecognisable to Holland when she bumped into him on the streets of New Orleans. It was one of the straighter ‘rock’ songs on the new record that some have pointed to as a new direction for her. In the live context and alongside her older folk and swampy jazz based songs it is clear there is no great departure from her previous style, more a casual wander off the track to take in a different view.

Holland threw in a couple of covers that hinted at some of her formative influences in Dylan and Townes Van Zandt. Played on the Steinway piano they were given her treatment and they became Jolie Holland songs for those few minutes. Her voice is a fascinating instrument as she shifts between mumbled jumbles of words and louder drawling exhortations. It is as if she has to work extra hard to wring the notes and emotions out from inside her.

A woozy and intimate New Orleans type of sound seemed to run through Holland’s performance and it creates a special mood in her songs. The style of her songwriting and playing was varied and brought to mind Tom Waits, M Ward (who contributed to her new album) and Joan As Policewoman, all with a nostalgic sepia toned flavour. Watching her perform and the way she delivers the songs with a faraway look in her eyes allowed the poetry of her lyrics to shine through on songs such as ‘Old Fashioned Morphine’ and ‘Palmyra’ when she sang “Only a few old petals left on the rose that touched your hand / my little heart is a graveyard its a no mans land”.

In contrast to the guitar and piano based songs, Holland ended the show with her version of ‘Mad Tom of Bedlam’ accompanied by Blumberg’s scattering percussion and her own ancient looking violin. It took us full circle from the full band to the solo piano songs to stripped down blues. It was an absorbing night of quiet and essentially traditional music from a musician that continues to impress with the range and depth of emotion she brings to her songwriting and playing.