Haunted Mountain

Album review

For two decades now, the Texas-reared and California-based sultry-voiced singer-songwriter Jolie Holland has perfected a folk/country hybrid with a distinctive singing style deeply rooted in blues and jazz. On her sixth studio album, she fearlessly encompasses even more genres and styles, but with a forceful ease and downright dreamy tempos. Guitars slither awake and bark distorted tones over percolating ambient tones. Fiddles and cellos drone from classical realms into Appalachian territory and back. It’s all collaged together with the clarity of a great soundtrack.

Holland's always strong songwriting is helped in parts by Big Thief's Buck Meek, who adds his own verse to the title track. (And yes, that’s the same Meek who included a version of the song on his own 2023 album, which he named … Haunted Mountain.)  His contributions to "Highway 72" are such that you have to listen over and over again. The term "instant classic" has been used to death, but the song (which references one of Hank Williams' best) just seems to have been there forever. If only Deadwood was still filming, so that it could close out an episode.

This release is no sell-out, by any means. It's Holland's most ambitious, clear-sounding, and overtly political recording to date. Its themes tackle what Naomi Klein has termed disaster capitalism, the onus of patriarchy, the legacy of colonialism, and the onset of fascism across the world. It's so strong and so real that one cannot imagine a world where such music might be released and not resonate with the larger world. Haunted Mountain matches its thematic cohesion with a slower tempo that's at times—as with the whistle-and-strum closer "What It's Worth"—downright somnambulant. This is very powerful stuff; don't drive at night or operate heavy machinery while under its influence. © Mike McGonigal/Qobuz