Claire Holley
Claire Holley
Yep Roc Records 2026


by William Michael Smith

It's just me and the boys and the ashes on the ground
Bums like to stare at you and ask you your name
They toast to the sign that says Jesus is the Way
And if you care to know them they'll kindly let you in
And ask you sometimes to come back again

On her latest album, Claire Holley is a scene recorder, a collector of visions, a human mile marker along life's highway. Like all the noted folk singers in whose stead she comes, Holley sees things the rest of us miss, sees blemishes and scars the rest of us gloss over. She knows the people we think we don't want to know and finds good in them.

The weekend people's leftovers leaves plenty to eat
And Mr. Stanley tonight will have his feast
He picks up the payphone without rings or calls to make
And mumbles some words he heard someone else say
Cheers to the mockingbird, dirty souls and smoky air
On the black sky the lamppost shines
Stanley takes another dime and walks away in the night

Holley says the best way to get familiar with her album is in the car during a trip. When I read this in her press kit, I thought it was one of those handy blurbs that sounds cool and hip but that has little basis in fact.

Wrong.

There's a map of the country in front of my eyes
Blue for the sea, white for the ice
I've looked at it a hundred times
But never like this before

It seems strange that a quiet, sensitive, folky Southern album would wait until it was in my truck player to finally penetrate my thick skull bone, but that's what happened this morning on the way to work as I listened to "Sea Boy," a punchy tune about a coastal kid who would "trade your shoes for a simple tune," a kid who "closes his eyes, plays you a tune, a friend of the wind and the seagull too." This is a typical airy, positive Claire Holley lyric, one that doesn't overwhelm but rather makes its appeals to the intellect and the gentler senses instead of to the baser instincts.

Ms. Holley has been playing guitar since childhood and, with guitarist Rob Seals, drummer Nic Brown, and bassist Steve Graham, she has fashioned an album built on solid playing and colorful, detail-laden, poetic songs. Claire Holley is a quiet, reflective record with a Southern somnolence, perfect for a hot, humid afternoon while sipping lemonade on the back porch or lying in the hammock under the magnolia tree.

*Claire Holley's musical home is at www.redeyeusa.com and www.yeproc.com Ms. Holley's site is claireholley.home.mindspring.com



Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

 
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