Malcolm Holcombe CD Release Show on August 30th

Malcolm Holcombe will perform at the Grey Eagle on August 30th at 8:00 pm. Tickets cost $12 in advance and $15 on the day of the show.

To purchase tickets please visit the Grey Eagle’s website.

A new Malcolm Holcombe CD, Pitiful Blues, will be released on August 5, 2014. This grassroots release, Holcombe’s tenth full length CD, was produced by Malcolm and his long time dobro player, Jared Tyler. Recorded between January and March 2014, in Swannanoa, NC and in Tulsa, OK, at Malcolm and Jared’s home studios, this album stands out as Holcombe’s most stripped down effort since his 2005 solo acoustic CD, I Never Heard You Knockin’. The bare bones authenticity of Pitiful Blues is steeped in the rural Appalachian Mountains where Malcolm was born and raised. David Fricke, of Rolling Stone Magazine, fittingly describes Holcombe’s unique songs and sound as a place where “haunted country, acoustic blues, and rugged folk all meet”. Pitiful Blues proudly takes it’s rightful place in the growing legacy of Malcolm’s estimable musical catalog.

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To stream Pitiful Blues, click here.

Years ago, following Malcolm Holcombe’s career could be as unnerving and high-wire suspenseful as his riveting live performances. His brilliance was obvious to a core of fans and some attentive music journalists, but so were the self-destructive tendencies that floated around this mercurial man like wraiths. We worried at times that we’d have to add Holcombe to the What Might Have Been pantheon with Hank Williams, Jaco Pastorius and Charlie Parker. We imagined talking about Holcombe in the past tense to the too many who’d never been able to hear his shockingly truthful and affecting voice.

By the grace of God however, there is no past tense in Holcombe’s life and career, just a very vibrant present and a widening sense of tomorrow’s possibilities. He is many years sober, performing worldwide and happily married to a woman who manages his schedule and keeps his inner garden clear for the work. He retains his quirky, fascinating character, and he writes – in spasms of energy and clarity, producing visions that hover between earthy solidity and rustic mysticism. He plays with rhythmic pounce and sings with psychological fire. And if the songs on his new album To Drink The Rain are a good indication, he’s working from a place of joy and balance.