Echo Mountain Recording Artist and Asheville native Malcolm Holcombe celebrates the release of his latest CD, Gamblin House with a concert at the Grey Eagle on Friday, February 1st.  Gamblin House is a follow-up/companion to the previously released 5-song EP entitled "Wager", which was released in the fall of 2007. Justin Townes Earle opens at 9pm.  Ticket are  $10 advance/$12 day of show.

(Quote from the Echo Mountain Records website)
Born and raised in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, Malcolm Holcombe is long recognized by the contemporary U.S.and European folk/americana community as a performer of national stature, and an uncommonly unique guitarist/vocalist. Rolling Stone magazine proclaims: "Haunted country, acoustic blues and rugged folk all meet [here]..." 

From the Grey Eagle Website:

 Try as you might to use other adjectives, when you write about Malcolm Holcombe and his work, you always come back to rugged and rustic. His visage appears to be carved of granite, and his voice is a sculpture crafted of tree bark and discarded railroad iron. His words and images cling to you for hours, even days, like wood smoke.

All of those things certainly apply to his new 'Gamblin’ House'. As always, there are echoes of John Prine and Guy Clark and the lesser-known kindred spirit Bill Morrissey, but the total package is all Malcolm Holcombe. His is a sound that combines harmonica-blessed folk, acoustic blues, stringband country, and smalltown-bred soul.

To get the full effect of that primordial soul, you need to see Malcolm onstage; his legendary performances are intense and all out. "If you're gonna do something, do it," is his explanation. "If you're gonna dig a ditch, dig a ditch. If you're gonna shine a shoe, shine a shoe." In other words, if you're gonna stand in front of a crowd of strangers with just your guitar and your songs, make it worth their time. He does it by presenting those songs with a gospel fervor (call it half howl, half hosanna) and with a penetrating stare, aimed (thank goodness) at nothing and no one, that becomes almost as deeply ingrained as his songs. It's sinewy and unfussy, the man, the music, and the delivery.

But to focus on the tortured is to miss at least half of Malcolm Holcombe -- the tender. That scarred soul is also one he’s hell bent on healing. "We all have our demons, and we all have our spirituality, whatever keeps us going," is how Malcolm puts it. "When it comes to the end of the day, it's God, family, and neighbors." And on 'Gamblin’ House' more than any other of his records, Holcombe does seem to be looking at what’s closest to him to keep him going: his family and the idea of home. The results create the most balanced and hopeful portrait of Malcolm yet. "I don't remember all the words to that 'Old Rugged Cross'", he sings on "You Don't Come See Me Anymore." That’s okay. With each recording, including this triumphant new one, Malcolm Holcombe continues to build his own world-wary but determined state of grace.

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