Jolie Holland is to release an album of songs in tribute to the late Michael Hurley. The album is entitled “Wolf Dispatch” and will be released on 18th July 2025 via Holland’s Cinquefoil Records imprint.
Hurley was a great inspiration to Holland. She was given Hurley’s “Long Journey” in 2003 by Lemon DeGeorge who engineered her records “Escondida” and “Springtime Can Kill You”. She says what she heard “was sourced from the same ancestral swamp where all folk/rock/blues musicians of his era were fishing. He had evidently been using different bait. The way he referenced melodic lines from earlier jazz and gospel felt so fresh”.
After hearing of Hurley’s death Holland and Max Knouse threw together a record of Hurley songs, some of which she had recorded a decade before, some fresh, for the album.
The album features seven tracks:
1- ‘B Bottom Girl’ – Holland on violin and vocals, Doug Wieselman on mandolin, Adam Brisbin on guitar
2- ‘I Paint A Design’ – Holland on vocals and guitar, Knouse on backing vocals and guitar
3- ‘O My Stars’ – Holland on vocals and whistle
4- ‘Wolf Dispatch’ – Knouse on vocals and guitar, Shane Kennedy on drums, Walter Stone on bass, Holland on backing vocals
5- ‘The Vt-Ore Floor’ – Knouse on vocals and guitar, Kennedy on drums, Stone on bass, Holland on backing vocals, viola
6- ‘New Tea’ – Holland on vocals, Hannah Marcus on vocals and guitar, Knouse on guitar
7- ‘Ghost Woman Blues’ by George Carter, adapted by Hurley – featuring “the wild, unbidden and serendipitous coyote chorus of East LA, sirens and helicopters of the LAPD”, Jocko the dog woofing, Holland on vocals and whistling plus an overdub on of David Coulter on musical saw.
You can listen to Holland’s cover of Hurley’s ‘Blue Driver’ (not on the album) below. The album will be released digitally, on CD and on cassette which can be found at Holland’s EU/UK store here. She has said she will have some vinyl to offer on her UK and Ireland tour dates which are listed below with ticket links here.
UK and Ireland tour dates
September 9th – Newcastle, Cluny 2
September 10th – Edinburgh, The Voodoo Rooms – The Speakeasy
September 11th – Glasgow, Glad Cafe
September 12th – Manchester, YES Basement
September 14th – Hebden Bridge, Trades Club
September 17th – Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
September 18th – London, Neon 194
September 19th – Brighton, St Lukes
September 24th – County Cork, Coughlan’s
September 26th – Derry, St. Augustine’s
September 27th – Belfast, Crescent Arts Centre
