I picture Malcolm Holcombe sitting on his back porch in full hobo gear, chewing tobacco and playing a battered acoustic guitar.
His songs have that seasoned quality of someone who has been through more than his fair share of hard times.
The ten new tunes on his tenth album give further notice that he is now wiser and stronger but still betray a strong streak of bitterness. These are the blues based on personal, not borrowed, experiences.
Holcombe's voice has such a grizzled, slurred and throaty quality that it comes as no surprise to learn that he has a history of alcoholism and hell raising. Nevertheless, the tender closing song ,For The Love Of A Child illustrates that he has not succumbed to his demons.
While he may have mellowed a little with age, there's nothing complacent or passive about his world view. The title track finds him on the warpath against an unjust world seeking "an eye for the eye and a tooth for a tooth".
Fighting for wounded pride is also a theme of By The Boots told from the perspective of sickly veteran - "what I am is who I am with a rifle in my hand". These songs bear witness to the fact that this is one old soldier who's not about to go quietly.
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Meanwhile, Roots is a fond ode to his Blue Ridge Mountains home in North Carolina while other songs are those of a journeyman musician. He's dead in a box in Georgia (Savannah Blues), sweltering in the Mississippi heat (Sign For A Sally) and playing the bars in downtown Louisville, Kentucky (The Music Plays On).
Any hardness of tone is frequently softened by the poetry of the song writing. Another Despair, for example, identifies with the fine line that separates sin and salvation: "the flesh gets messy with a smile and a nod, on the hooks of a dealer to the Grace of God".
All in all, the truths may be harsh ones but the mood of this fine album is far from pitiful.
Malcolm Holcombe website
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