Jolie Holland

The Portland Arms in Cambridge (capacity 200) had a hard time getting punters out for this exceptional gig on the fag end of Easter weekend. Consequently the usual competition to get to the front was non-existent with the audience shyly retreating to a safe distance.

Club Passim, Cambridge, USA

While The Living may have polished up her contemporary appeal a little (and the band eased through what was essentially their third performance together), Holland proved herself to be as endearing as ever.

The former Be Good Tanyas singer recently put on a nearly flawless (musically) show at Seattle’s Triple Door, a vintage club which proved the perfect venue for her vintage-sounding voice.

At some hazy point where country and torch singing bleed into each other she seems to warm melodies until they melt a little singing in a strange half-swallowed half-gurgle that makes it very hard to discern what she's singing about.

They share a cobwebby blues-based quality that will never fly on Radio 1 and attracts people approximately twice their age.

Jolie Holland @ Jammin’ Java — 9/17/24