Description
Experimental blues man Lonnie Holley is one of America’s great alchemists. As a visual artist and sculptor, he treats found objects and household materials—rocking chairs, padlocks, a charred television—with their entire history in mind. He respects their past as functioning tools of the mundane, but honors their spiritual and philosophical value as vessels of memory. As a songwriter, the Alabama native similarly builds rich compositions on the foundation of American roots music, but reshapes them into works that are beyond genre. Like his sculptures fashioned from rudimentary components, his songs are often arranged rather simply on a handful of familiar instruments. On his new EP National Freedom—recorded in 2014 at the late Richard Swift’s studio of the same name—Holley invokes a mythical atmosphere from his very human surroundings.
