Newspaper Page Text
B ritish artists have a long history of
bringing an outsider's appreciation
and interpretation to American musiq.
Holly Golightly's made an entire career
of it, in fact, and after years of soak
ing up and reworking garage rock, electric
blues and Southern soul, she's making a bigger
commitment to American music by picking up
and moving to its spiritual home.
After living in the UK and regularly tour
ing all the likely continents (and after a brief
period settled in San Francisco), Golightly and
her touring partner—a Texas native who goes
by the name Lawyer Dave, and who performed*
under the name The Brokeoffs before joining
up with Golightly—have put down roots in
Danielsville, about 20 miles north of Athens.
The two decided to settle around these
parts after visiting a friend who, following
Hurricane Katrina, moved in with her father
there. "We stayed with her a bit in her new
place, scoping it out, working out whether we
liked it," says Golightly. "I was back and forth
to the UK as well. We were looking all over,
Tennessee, Kentucky... but that's where the
place came up, and that's what we'd gone for."
Before setting out late last year on tour
to promote the new album Dirt Don't Hurt,
released in October, Golightly and Dave had
only been in Danielsville for a handful of days.
"Just long enough to get some contractors
in and spend some money," she says. "Just
before we left we had an oven put it so we
could eat when we got back, but otherwise it's
a bit like camping at this point." They both
returned from that first American tour as U.S.
residents and have spent the first few months
of 2009 getting settled ipto Danielsville life.
The two recorded Dirt Don't Hurt—the
42-year-old Golightly's 13th studio album—in
Spain, taking a five-day break in the middle
of a 50-date European tour to lay down tracks
at a friend's studio on the northern Spanish
coast. Vintage instruments, analog recording
equipment and the pair's road-honed, cama
raderie give the album a relaxed, copasetic
tone. With any more studio work it might've
sounded fussy or forced, but instead comes
naturally—especially for a Brit and a lawyer
playing with Southern sounds.
Golightly's known primarily for her garage-
band past with the cult fave, UK garage-rock
band Thee Headcoatees, but her solo stuff
trucks down a more rustic road, dipping into
the pre-rock-and-roll era. Past solo albums
have-gotten into bluesy, spooky territory,
sharing sounds with Tom Waits or Los Angeles
sweetheart singer Eleni Mandell; teamed up
with Lawyer Dave, though, things take an
even more rural turn. Antique folk tunes,
front-porch ruminations and American folk
sounds creak and bellow; plucked banjos,
glass-bottle percussion, whomped kick-drums,
and a few romantic torch songs added for
good measure.
Her famous neighbors down the high
way may've offered up fables of the
Reconstruction, but Golightly digs even fur
ther back in the Southern songbook for inspi
ration, and inspiration is what she feels here
with her new Georgia home. This new turn
her music's taken places Golightly—sonically
as well as geographically—near Atlanta's
Hubcap City or our own Don Chambers and Vic
Chesnutt. "Bottom Below" is a rousing lament,
lurching and jittery and loaded with country-
soul vocal harmonizing, while the insistent
"Boats Up the River" is an eerie, haunting
Appalachian toe-tapper.
"For the most part, my record collection is
made up of Southern soul, so it's very much
like home to me already," she says. "And
Athens is such a great place to be near, if
you're going to be near anywhere. I wouldn't
like to move to Atlanta, that's for sure, just
because I didn't have any interest in being
in a city. We wanted land, a place where we
could have animals, grow some stuff, play
some music and not bother anybody..', and
we've managed to fulfill all of the criteria!"
Digging into American music's recent (and
less recent) history for musical inspiration
makes the Georgia relocation a sensible, even
natural one, says Golightly (yes, her actual
name). "[The South is] much more familiar
to me than anywhere else in the States. I
never felt at home in San Francisco, that's for
sure, and that was work-related while I was
there. And this is different, really, because
we're doing this and only doing this. We're at
a point where we don't have to go and find a
day job, so I think it'll give us a little more
time to play. That's the idea, anyway."
Their recent tour saw tunes off the ragged
Dirt Don't Hurt, but they've reworked a lot
of older material to suit the duo format as
well. "Some of the old set that we've played
together for years [has been] adapted to fit
this lineup. We know a bit of everything, and
it's working out terrific," says Golightly.
Her new status as a Georgia musician—
despite its still-in-progress status—excites
Golightly. "I'm quite used to moving around,
but the volume of stuff just gets bigger and
bigger every time, and this time it's really
mammoth," she says, as she gets ready to
make her live debut as an almost-Athenian.
"[But] it'll be so local; it'll be fantastic! It'll
be nice to have somewhere nearby where we
can play fairly regularly. That'll be great!"
Chris Hassiotis
( ^
WHO: Hoiiy Golightly & the Brokeoffs
WHERE: Tasty World
WHEN: Monday, Mar. 16
HOW MUCH: $8
V )
mutations Me/rA: (
C?Iarried Saturday, March 7, 2009
ogically 1 Fabulous Match
IVour Flagpole Friends
EARTH-FRIENDLY • WATER-WISE • ORGANIC GARDENING
www.FloraHydroponics.com • 706-353-2223 • Mon-Sat 11 am-7pm
owSctSdoVbSmew
. HYDROPONICS
2475 Jefferson Rd • Athens • in the Homewood Village Shopping Center
Trivia night at Willy’s!
buy one get one 1 /2 off
e>cpir<*Ho*\ *3/31/0*7 * Willy's 6«ll
Oh< co**ffe* CV.rW»**r» f«r visit- fer offer. Hot- vaU> it 1 *ol>,
t-»AMfe**cJl or JlttfliCAt-eJl. Hot- VaILA for CAt-e*i*g OrAert.
CajI\ v«Ouc 1/100 of li. GooA o*0y At- AVKcm IocaHoh. ,
£> TjOOI v*Vt houcaha 6*31. CoAe: FP
voted ‘best burrito’ Creative Loafing and Insite Magazine
Joiv\ us -Pov
gve^\f -Puv\ <?\y\A pviz.es -
Evevy We*A
begihHihg ffp^A
College Night
Rvsf Tues^y
O-P \rUe v*AOV\f U
^epf - M^vy
$4.00 biAwiVos 0*11
tA/IfU college ID
WILLY'S
MEXKANA GRILL
VA/wu/.wil)ys.cov*\
W Alps RW
E>eecUwoo<A fVomehouAe
Koh - I l<nv*A - |0pv*
iot-*n-\no
we cater,
to a crowd!
call 706-548-1920
Fo pi *\ce orAey
MARCH 11, 2009 • FLAGPOLE.COM 17