Based in Nashville, born in Memphis and holding a Masters in Divinity from Scotland’s University of St. Andrews for his dissertation on Springsteen and American Redemptive Imagination, since forming the band in 2005 the slightly adenoidal Drew Holcomb has sold around 100,000 albums and had his music has featured in both House and Nashville.
Medicine, his seventh album, offers another set of warm, mellow country soul numbers about love and loss like the shimmeringly nostalgic American Beauty and the slow waltzing, piano backed You’ll Always Been My Girl (dedicated to wife and band member, Ellie, who provides harmony on the I’ve Got You with its whistling refrains) offset with more uptempo tracks such as the shuffling shaker-rhythm, piano and organ boogie good time blues Here We Go and the chunky, funky percussion-driven chant and tumble of Sisters Brothers.
You’ll hear the Springsteen influence, on the triumphant blue collar rock n rolling The Last Thing We Do, particularly the piano intro, while the guitar chugging, cascading melody of the excellent, defiant Shine Like Lightning< (an anthem for underdog bands everywhere) suggests early Tom Petty’s also in the mix. Equally, underneath their country clay both Avalanche and Tightrope have their roots in the Celtic soul of Van Morrison.
Ending with When It’s All Said And Done’s questioning of God’s existence, whether he cares and where our answer leaves us as it swells to a pedal steel finale, this is a slow burn listen that, in keeping with title, does you good and really should be taken on a daily basis.
Review by: Mike Davies
https://soundcloud.com/drewholcomb/shine-like-lightning
UK Tour Dates
Jan 30 Bronte Music Club, Rathfriland
Jan 31 Island Arts Centre, Lisburn
Feb 01 Ballincollig Winter Music Festival, Ballincollig, Ireland
Feb 03 The Old Queen’s Head, London
Feb 04 Prince Albert, Brighton
Feb 05 The B-Bar, Plymouth
Feb 06 Town Hall Live, Kirton In Lindsey
Feb 07 The Bullingdon, Oxford
Feb 08 The Maze, Nottingham