Malcolm Holcombe at Liberty Hall...

Last night we took in a show by singer song writer Malcolm Holcombe at Liberty Hall in Nacogdoches. It was sponsored by the Pinetop Mystics. I like this venue and the listening room atmosphere was perfect for Malcolm's songs about his take on rivers, 40 year papermill men and life in general. 

Malcolm is from North Carolina and his intricate finger picking has it's roots in the East coast Piedmont Blues style and he uses this to create smoothly modulated segues from one song to another . His songs are poems of life and other times he uses words to set the stage for what's going on in his head. He's maybe a little crazy but then most creative people are.    

Malcomb has shared stages with Merle Haggard, Richard Thompson, Leon Russell and John Hammond. Yeah, I know you haven't heard of him but important people have. I had one of his cds already and I bought the one with the "40 Year Papermill Man"song. I can identify with that. I worked in a papermill 25 years and if it had not closed down I would be closing on 40. 

Thanks to the Pine Knot Mystics for bringing this show to town. It was a stop off gig between shows at the Mucky Duck in Houston and Strange Brew in Austin. This weekend he is at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Oklahoma. 

Malcolm was a gracious performer and thanked Liberty Hall for the sign and policy that prohibited concealed weapons. I thank them also.