Malcolm Holcombe: To Drink The Rain (Music Road Records, 2011)
To Drink The Rain is Malcolm Holcombe’s eight album, but the first one that I’ve heard. Well better late than never (if we start to celebrate the cliche), because this is pretty amazing stuff. Some of the rawest country-blues of the record might slide out of pop fan’s comfort zone, but this is only an issue with a couple of the songs. On most parts, To Drink The Rain easily floats into the core of my heart and songs like Becky’s Blessed (Backporch Flowers) and One Man Singin’ also finds a place to stay there. Especially Becky’s Blessed is one of the best songs of the year so far. This man is definitely a hardcore troubadour and able to write extremely captivating country, folk & blues songs and the album is full of down-to-earth & rough beauty. Maybe the album is not stylewise my closest companion, but Malcolm sounds so convincing all the time that I just have to throw all the prejudices away and just listen to one man singing.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYifln4Gyuc]