Assured debut, looks forward to a brighter tomorrow.
During the pandemic, Mike Hollon headed to Irving Park with a guitar, a notebook, and a bottle of wine. It was a period that inspired his debut album, and one he still remembers, saying, “I can take myself back there and it calms me.” Calm and confident are two words that best describe the eleven tracks on “Irving Park,” despite its initial recording being disrupted by Hurricane Helene, which destroyed the bar Hollon was working in at the time. A vintage baritone ukulele bought in Madrid adds atmosphere to the bright and breezy ‘Love’ and ‘Movin’ Along’. But it’s not all sunny skies and smiles; there’s some serious substance here. The opening ‘1000 Days’ is a post-breakup song where Hollon reflects on “a thousand days spent looking back.” While the blues-influenced ‘Fool No More’ continues the story as his ex reappears to be told, “It ain’t hard to see that I don’t need you around”.
The general feeling, though, is what Hollon describes as “fun and optimism despite struggle”. He admits to having great fun recording at Stewart’s Empty House Studio in Lincoln, Nebraska, and that’s definitely evident on the perfectly produced title track.
The wistful ‘Blue Mountain Spring’, which Hollon describes as “an instrumental prayer that looks to brighter days ahead” for communities hit by Hurricane Helenne, brings things to a fitting conclusion, reflecting on one of the acts of nature which have proved such an influence on his career so far.
