Mith

The expansive American experience Lonnie Holley quilts together across his astounding new album,* MITH,* is both multitudinous and finely detailed. Holley’s self-taught piano improvisations and stream-of-consciousness lyrical approach have only gained purpose and power since he introduced the musical side of his art in 2012 with Just Before Music,* followed by 2013’s Keeping a Record of It. But whereas his previous material seemed to dwell in the Eternal-Internal,* MITH lives very much in our world - the one of concrete and tears; of dirt and blood; of injustice and hope. Across these songs, in an impressionistic poetry all his own,* Holley touches on Black Lives Matter (“I’m a Suspect”), Standing Rock (“Copying the Rock”) and contemporary American politics (“I Woke Up in a Fucked-Up America”). A storyteller of the highest order, he commands a personal and universal mythology in his songs of which few songwriters are capable - names like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joanna Newsom and Gil Scott-Heron come to mind. MITH was recorded over five years in locations such as Porto,* Portugal; Cottage Grove,* Oregon; New York City and Holley’s adopted hometown of Atlanta,* Georgia. These 10 songs feature contributions from fellow cosmic musician Laraaji,* jazz duo Nelson Patton,* visionary producer Richard Swift,* saxophonist Sam Gendel and producer/musician Shahzad Ismaily.