Lonnie Holley: Oh Me Oh My Album Review

Holley, a descendant of slavery, also taps into the intergenerational lineage of Black trauma, dramatizing an exchange between an enslaved person and her enslaver on “Better Get That Crop in Soon,” set to a funky undercurrent of kalimba and marimba grooves. (Slavery is a recurring theme both in Holley’s sculptures, which have depicted slave ships, and his music, which includes the 18-minute epic “I Snuck Off the Slave Ship.”) By sequencing the song next to the more explicitly autobiographical “Mount Meigs,” he draws a parallel between his own experience and that of his ancestors, all victims of state-sanctioned brutality. 

Made in collaboration with producer Jacknife Lee, who shares a writing credit on every song, Oh Me Oh My manages to be Holley’s most approachable and most ambitious album all at once. The widescreen, full-bodied arrangements are a grand departure. Holley began a music career in earnest in his 60s; his early releases, 2012’s Just Before Music and 2013’s Keeping a Record of It, contained chintzy, off-the-cuff arrangements that mostly served as a malleable canvas for the artist’s free-association storytelling. On 2018’s sprawling MITH, the music assumed a more dreamlike, jazzy texture, with tracks that unfolded across seven minutes or more. 

On Oh Me Oh My, the songs are more tightly structured, while the musical backdrops take on a cinematic life of their own: the sputtering, orchestral funk of “Earth Will Be There,” the ambient drift of “Kindness Will Follow Your Tears,” the frantic, vibrating polyrhythms of “Better Get That Crop in Soon.” We even get traces of West African pop on “If We Get Lost They Will Find Us,” which features the raspy wail of Malian vocalist Rokia Koné. The poet Moor Mother blurs personal and cosmic histories into one on “I Am a Part of the Wonder” and “Earth Will Be There,” which place Holley’s detail-rich reminiscences in communion with free jazz, electro-funk, and the long, rich tradition of Afrofuturism.

Oh Me Oh My is the rare album that can be described as both “star-studded” and virtually bereft of mainstream appeal. Lee, who’s produced records for the likes of R.E.M. and U2, marshals some big-name contributors, and some will look askance at the intrusion of marquee guests into Holley’s work. What’s striking is that these guests rarely steal the spotlight (Koné is the exception), content to serve as part of the patchwork of Holley’s outsider art. Stipe contributes a soulful mantra to the title track; Sharon Van Etten brings a world-weary yearning to “None of Us Will Have But a Little While,” which yields Holley’s most melodic singing to date. And Bon Iver’s chilly, multilayered falsetto is instantly recognizable on “Kindness Will Follow Your Tears.” It’s the first time conventional hooks have been present in Holley’s music.