Following decades of a rich, singular artistic output, celebrated visual and performance artist Lonnie Holley has signed to Jagjaguwar. Since 1979, Holley has devoted his life to the practice of improvisational creativity, following a tumultuous and chaotic childhood. From performance and sound to painting, sculpture, or drawing, Holley’s ecstatic creation process has blossomed from struggle, hardship, and, perhaps most importantly, furious curiosity and biological necessity. As Noisey put it, he’s “the closest thing America has to a prophet.”
Musically, Holley’s output can sound like a bridge between Alice Coltrane and Gil Scott-Heron. A curious, visceral, and an authentic blend of genre, krautrock and R&B, a profile of Holley in The New York Times noted the music as “largely unclassifiable.”Although Holley had been making private musical recordings since the mid-‘80s,Holley’s first album, Just Before Music, wasn’t released until 2012 via Dust-to-Digital, when Holley was 62.
His sophomore LP, Keeping a Record of It, was also released via Dust-to-Digital the following year, and included playing from Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox and Cole Alexander of the Black Lips. Holley has also performed with artists like Daniel Lanois, Brian Blade, Laraaji, and Bill Callahan; his music has also been sampled by labelmate Bon Iver.
Holley’s sculptures are constructed from found materials in the oldest tradition of African American sculpture; his artwork can be found in the collections of major museums throughout the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others; on permanent display in the United Nations; and was previously displayed in the White House Rose Garden.
Lonnie Holley was also recently the subject of short documentary, The Man is the Music which you can watch below:
Lonnie Holley Tour Dates:
Sat., May 5 – Decatur, GA @ Eddie’s Attic
Mon., June 4 – Montreal, QC @ TBA
Thu., June 7 – Providence, RI @ Columbus Theater
Fri., June 8 – Cambridge, MA @ The First Parish in Camrbidge, UU
Sat., June 9 – Peterborough, NH @ The Thing in the Spring – Mariposa Museum
Mon., June 11 – Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust
Sat., June 16 + Sun., June 17 – Escondido, CA @ A Ship in the Woods Music and Art Festival
Tue., July 17 – Atlanta, GA @ Atlanta Symphony Hall &
Mon., July 23 – Austin, TX @ Paramount Theater &
Wed., July 25 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre &
Fri., July 27 – Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theatre &
Sun., July 29 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theater &
Mon., July 30 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater &
Tue., July 31 + Wed., Aug. 1 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Theater at the Ace Hotel &
Fri., Aug. 3 – Sun., Aug. 5 – Portland, OR @ Pickathon
& w/ Animal Collective