Jolie Holland Announces Third Release
by Taleen Kalenderian | 00.00.0000

The gentle crooning singer-songwriter Jolie Holland announced the May 9, 2006 release of Springtime Can Kill You, her third release for Anti-/Epitaph Records. Following in the steps of her lauded 2003 basement-tapes Catalpa and 2004’s studio-debut Escondida, the new album takes Holland’s sepia-toned, song noir to a new level of transcendence.

Springtime’s 12 track song-cycle is a crossroads where haunting meets joyful. Holland’s songs rise and fall like heavy eyelids while sounds from past and present-tense waltz together to a never-ending melody that flickers between folk, jazz, blues and pop. All Music Guide dubs Holland’s sound as “a listening experience that is singular, startling, and soulful.”

Holland admits its the first time she wrote songs specifically for an album and a band, saying, “I even wrote myself out of a few songs, so I could work solely as a singer.” To achieve Springtime’s lush sound in the studio, Holland and band recorded live to tape for much of the album. To further the environment of spontaneity, she invited an audience of friends to the studio for the tracking of several songs.

When asked about the song-cycle aspect of the album, Holland says that she doesn’t want to beat people over the head with the concept of the album, saying “if you really listen, you will hear the threads of the song-cycle; crazy dreams, moonshine, mockingbirds...springtime can kill you. It’s a pilgrim's progress through the horrors of lust...interspersed with songs of true friendship."

Holland will preview tracks from Springtime Can Kill You on March 17 at the Cedar Street Courtyard in Austin, Texas at a South-by-Southwest showcase at 10:30 p.m., following Billy Bragg.

There will also be two pre-tour warm up shows at Largo in Los Angeles on April 5th and 26th. From there, she plans to tour North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand through 2006 and continue her genre-hopping guest appearances. Last year, she appeared onstage with hip-hop artist Sage Francis and she also sang on several songs for Bad Religion singer Greg Graffin’s upcoming solo album. We can only guess what the rest of 2006 holds for this country stage beauty.