Many people would argue that Gillian Welch captures all the beauty of Appalachia in her songs and performance. Â You can hear the clear mountain streams and the fog draped valleys in the simple, haunting melodies she’s known for creating. Â If that’s the case, then Malcolm Holcombe is the stark reality of last century’s natural resource and the SNAP program. Â Produced by an insightful Darrell Scott, Pretty Little Troubles lets a coal miner’s poet lyrics make their impact while the instrumental accompaniments keep the songs from turning maudlin.
Good Ole Days leads the pack with a banjo and guitar picking tribute to the fact those days were anything but good. Â That’s what we reminisce about, though. Â Damn Weeds is a metaphor for thinking it’s ever going to be the case you can just rest and enjoy the good. Â The Sky Stood Still is a walking blues number, but surprises with a little classical violin instead of the fiddle solo. Â The title track gives a kind of Tom Waits treatment to the situation with talking vocals and jazz feeling to the background instruments.
Pretty Little Troubles is not a single topic project, however.  Holcombe has been a traveling musician for decades and has the good stories to prove it.  South Hampton Street had a displaced gypsy feel to it long before I heard the lyric about the gypsy woman on south Hampton Stree.  The Eyes O’ Josephine is a lilting, Celtic tune with a classic broken heart theme.  Bury, England documents a gig in the industrial part of the UK where the building “smelled like an old folks home inside” and the coffee the venue provided wasn’t fit for a dog.  The dual leads from Holcombe’s guitar and Jared Tyler’s dobro make the travelogue the catchiest song on the record.
 Pretty Little Troubles is not a CD you put on for guests at a party.  It’s Americana noir.  But it will serve to remind you how good your station in life really is.  For that, it’s uplifting.  Add the no-held-punches of the lyrics and the first rate melodies and it’s an album that adds to any folk collection.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.