Jolie Holland has teamed up with Buck Meek for the compelling new song, Highway 72.
Jolie Holland teams-up with Buck Meek for ‘Highway 72’ (Far Out)
‘A few weeks back, Buck Meek’s latest solo album, Haunted Mountain, graced us. Before the end of the year, Jolie Holland will also grace us with a record titled Haunted Mountain. This kinship came about following a collaboration between the pair on a track that fittingly blends the mystic with the elemental, ‘Highway 72’.
‘When discussing his own track, ‘Paradise’, Meek offered an insight into how their creative coming-together works: “Sometimes when you half-hear something spoken, something unspoken inside the words is revealed. Your mind fills in the blank, finishes the sentence, infers deep meaning – though you still can’t fully explain it.”
‘He explained: ”Jolie Holland sent me some of the lyrics for this song, about feeling in awe of the vastness within a loved one, and I wrote it thinking about how love often feels too big to comprehend, like death or life after death, or space.”
‘Clearly, the duo are entwined with introspection that is also echoed in the music. The instrumentation on ‘Highway 72’ is equally considered, to a level of depth that you don’t often get from heavy-handed players.
‘There is texture to the guitar and strings that imply playing hands hit notes with a notion of narrative; chords are not just strummed uniformly, but rather in a nuanced manner that gives the track a sense of character.
Beyond the triumph of intricacy, there is a lovely Kerouacian feel to the lyrics as they croon in harmony: “I won’t know where I’m headed until I’m further along. One foot in front of the other on the lost highway.” And these are given an idiosyncratic twist by a dashing of quirkiness.
In fact, embracing quirkiness is central to the whole project. As Holland said regarding their shared album titles, “he wanted to name his record Haunted Mountain, ‘…only if you’re not already naming your record Haunted Mountain.’ Well, that had been the name of my next record for quite a while. We thought about it for a minute and decided it was bizarre and wonderful. I am enormously pleased that Buck chose it as his album name too.”
Haunted Mountain was released on October 6th via Cinquefoil.
New Video: https://youtu.be/SkO3-w4zDx4?si=T8NpCvNbbE0ZomV1
Music: https://joliehollandmusic.com/
#music #jolieholland @JolieHolland
