First release on Black Opry Records resurrects Holden’s ‘Southern Gothic country’
The title of Jett Holden’s debut album is ‘The Phoenix’, a strikingly appropriate metaphor for the place at which he currently finds himself in his music career and for the possibilities of his future. Three short years ago Holden was ready to give up entirely on a career in music and this new release sees the resurrection of his career from a point where he notes he “had quit music. I was done” to a brighter position where “everything feels possible now”.
Holden’s interest in music originally developed through singing in choirs then learning guitar as a teenager and leaning to what he calls his “Evanescence/Flyleaf emo phase”. Moving to California and playing acoustic shows around led to him singing a development deal for a major label. This was a short-lived shot at the ‘American dream’ ending when the label appeared to lose interest and Holden decided to return to busking on the streets of Virginia, whilst holding down a job at Toys “R” Us. Then COVID hit and this seemed to have hammered the final nail in his music ambitions.
This may sound like a familiar story – artist puts in the groundwork, gets their one shot but, for some reason, fails to make it count and returns to a life of humdrum work and niggling regret. However there is a particular perspective to this story, which should command the attention of anyone interested in the wider spectrum of Americana. That Holden was signed to a deal by a big label in the first place was a small victory for diversity in the industry; given that he is a black artist in the Country music genre. However his original label lost interest and “the marketing dried up, the opportunities just stopped coming through” following a video meeting during which he let it be known that he was gay.
Holden acknowledges these experiences as the driving force for ‘The Phoenix’, reflecting the frustrating journey he has had in the industry; “because a lot of the hate and discrimination has been swept under the rug”. Whilst pitching himself as a country artist, he acknowledges that the support received from the Americana community has been “refreshing”, and hopes that Country music as a whole can follow suit. In particular he credits Holly G and her Black Opry organization, which serves to celebrate and support Black artists in roots and country, as being instrumental in his return to music and the emergence of ‘The Phoenix’.
It should be noted here that this extensive background is not just colour to flesh out the review, it is vital to an appreciation of the strengths, and the weaknesses, of ‘The Phoenix’. One of the pivotal songs on the record is ‘Taxidermy’ and this was effectively the starting point for Holly G’s interest in Holden’s music and in return his involvement with Black Opry. G heard a snatch of the song online and secured a grant for Holden to finish writing and record it. Listeners’ responses to the finished song were Holden’s indication that he had the ability to connect with an audience and convinced him to continue with the work that eventually delivered us ‘The Phoenix’. ‘Taxidermy’ opens the album and is a pretty good encapsulation of both what is great about this record and what doesn’t quite work.
The song was written as Holden’s reaction to instances of Police brutality and the performative nature of some of the responses to it that he witnessed on social media. “‘Taxidermy’ came out of a frustration with the lack of action to rectify what was happening in our nation in regard to police brutality and racism…” he explains. There is no beating around the bush with this opening salvo. We are launched headlong into Holden’s experience and his visceral, angry response to it. “I’ll believe that my life matters to you, when I’m more than taxidermy for your Facebook wall … I’ll believe that my life matters to you, when the bible’s not a tool you use to crucify”. His initially unsteady and eventually powerful vocals convey a sense of revulsion and fury along with the resolve to not put up it with for a moment more. All the while the backing builds from a simply plucked acoustic to a full-on hurricane of 1990s Garth Brooks stadium drums and power chords.
The passion and purpose on show here is important, undeniable and unrelenting. It is what connected Holden with his audience in the first instance. His righteous anger seeps from every pore of the song and we are left in no doubt how he feels about his experience. The pain is real and he brings it to life viscerally, matching instinct and intellect. The overwhelming sense of anger we get from this song proceeds throughout most of the rest of the record, perhaps to the point where it can feel almost belligerent, even histrionic. There is little nuance, little light and shade. Indeed much of the recording / production sounds harsh, noisy and monotone. It’s all pretty clean and crisp but seems to lack the warmth to embrace the listener and after a while it can become a bit too much. What at first moves us with raw emotion, eventually keeps us at a distance and stops us fully engaging with all that Holden has to say.
Even the songs that apparently tell of positive experiences can fall prey to the ominous. Take the resonant ‘West Virginia Sky’, which sees Holden initially reflecting on the beauty of the changing colours of autumn days in West Virginia before shifting to tell of a family slowly losing someone to cancer. Holden’s telling of the story employs his cherished use of metaphor but ultimately, as the song moves from metaphorical to substantial, it musically amplifies and becomes portentous, giving us a sense of the family’s anger but little else. Perhaps part of the issue is Holden’s voice here and elsewhere on the record. It is undeniably a powerful and expressive instrument but he only seems to use it in two modes throughout, either quietly emoting, yet itching to burst forth and full on emoting. This is where the Garth Brooks comparisons come in again. The feeling here is that Holden, unlike Brooks, has more to offer vocally, but we get very few glimpses of his range here.
In “Scarecrow” Holden again makes use of metaphor to tell of his experience of coming out to his Southern Jehovah’s Witness family. On this occasion the timeworn scarecrow/lion/tin man brain/courage/heart associations are a bit predictable and clunky and the music again tips over into stadium bro-country territory. ‘When I’m Gone’ on the other hand is an almost gentle heartfelt country lullaby, where Holden is joined by Emily Scott Robinson. It’s another song about loss and the two performers share a perceptible bond, telling of friends or family they have lost to suicide. Of all the songs on ‘The Phoenix’ it’s the most profound and raises emotions beyond the prevailing anger.
Mention has been made of Garth Brooks throughout these notes and the similarities are there for all to see. They are no surprise either, given that Holden himself has cited ‘The Thunder Rolls’ as one of his earliest influences and references his own style as Southern gothic country. It has to be said that he does cleave to the mainstream side of the style but there is plenty of A.UK pedigree to ‘The Phoenix’, with CMA and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Will Hoge producing, contributions from Emily Scott Robinson, Charlie Worsham and John Osborne and the support of the Thirty Tigers label.
This is an important record, just not a great one. The passion is evident and Holden’s ability to impact listeners on a visceral level is undoubted. He has a winning way with language, being both direct and poetic in an accessible way. However enervating the fierce anger present is, when played out as the single overriding emotion it becomes almost too much to bare. The musical setting is powerful but also occasionally overwrought and lacking in nuance. Hopefully on future releases Holden will be able to hang on to the righteous passion that fuels ‘The Phoenix’ but also loosen the reins a little, let in some musical light and shade, give his powerful words a more sympathetic space in which to flourish and communicate the nuance they are clearly capable of.
