Lonnie Holley – Oh Me Oh My

Review Score:

A+

The Unprecedented Times –

May 31 / 2023

I’m in awe of Lonnie Holley’s “Oh Me Oh My”.

I was sitting in the lobby of a mechanic shop when I decided to pop in one earbud and listen to track one. I was just 5 seconds in before I stopped myself. I would need to pay this the attention it deserved. I had a long, late drive to take from the countryside into the city that evening. I saved it for then. Yellow and blue street lights lit the way back to my apartment as I cruised along the nearly empty roads. The album was just long enough to encompass the whole of my drive, right up to the moment I pulled up to my street.

I was wowed again and again by this project. Lonnie Holley’s Oh Me Oh My is lightning in a bottle. Holley is 73 years old. I mention his age as a point of note because of how uncommon it is to receive a project like this from longtime music veterans. He’s had a remarkable life, and that is reflected in his writing. Born in 1950, Lonnie Holley grew up in the deep south, in the Jim Crow era. Oh Me Oh My acts as a loose diary. The songs are a series of tales, reflective and contemplative. Some from a troubled past, others looking to an imagined future. Jacknife Lee’s producing credit makes sense here. He seems to have a knack for these vast, open landscape type of records. 

I did not grow up in Lonnie’s world. Not even close to it. But he does a hell of a job expressing what it might have been like. “Mount Meigs” is one of the most incredible, horrific songs I’ve heard in a long time. It is frantic, dark, rapidly changing pseudo-jazz with Lonnie’s echoing spoken word descriptors behind it. He works through a fraction of the trauma he experienced in his time at “Mount Meigs Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children”.

Lonnie Holley approaches Oh Me Oh My with a level of perspective few can match. It is equal parts grounded as it is vast in its scope. Lonnie tells stories of humanity, but remains optimistic as he makes sense of the cosmic circumstances that make life possible. He acknowledges mortality on “None Of Us Have But A Little While” and spirituality on “Testing”. The instrumentation surprises and impresses from start to finish. Even if you think you know what the next song will sound like, you don’t. Following “Mount Meigs” is “Better Get That Crop In Soon”. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Holley points out the parallels between the experiences of his youth and those of his ancestors. 

“Future Children” has a repeating synth line that plays both like a wake-up alarm and a low-budget 70’s sci-fi score. It’s unlike anything heard up until this point and is a testament to Lonnie’s experimentation. When you learn of his background as a lifelong visual artist, it all comes together. This album sounds like something a visual artist would make, but it also contains a level of depth that can’t be as easily replicated. The album is bubbling over with poetic language and storytelling. The album features Bon Iver and Sharon Van Etten, who both elevate their songs and shake up the tracklist. 

This is a remarkable project. It is truly unlike anything I’ve heard in recent memory. It sticks with you. Lonnie Holley, a man in his 70s, is making music more emotionally powerful, musically dynamic, and stylistically interesting than many of his contemporaries. This is an almost indescribably affecting record. Give it the attention it deserves. 

Review Score:

A+