“I ain’t much on commercial formula craftsmanship,” says Malcolm Holcombe (pictured above), whose 1996 Geffen debut, A Hundred Lies, got a four-star Rolling Stone review and had critics equating Holcombe with Lucinda Williams and Robert Earl Keen.
His music, full of stark images of hardscrabble folk getting through life as best they can, delivered like John Prine with a hangover, has been grouped with the “insurgent country” category. But Holcombe deadpans, “I don’t know what that means–sounds like something to do with surgery.” Instead, according to Holcombe, “I just call it folk music.” Holcombe’s songwriting formula is of the no-frills variety. “Try not to put too many lines of bullshit in there. Swat a few flies, but try not to beat a dead horse. Try to keep it real.” For more information, call 469-3667.
