Floramay Holliday no longer lives in Austin — so I rarely get to visit with her and her harmonica player (and husband) Gabor Racz. But Thursday night (May 7th) Floramay has a CD release party at the Saxon Pub with her OLD Austin band that includes the amazing Arty Passes. [Just tonight while at Antone's for a Stonehoney set, a fellow whose band had opened for Kevin Fowler recently was telling me just how amazing Arty was in that band!]
The photos below, however, are from the Sunday night Shelley King Band show at the Saxon with Floramay sitting in for a few songs the two women have written together. Two of those so much fun songs — “Coffee” and “The Things You Do” — are on the new Floramay record, “Dreams.” Words cannot express how much these two women (and their husbands and families) mean to Flanfire — they were good friends (and cruise mates) of my beloved Nancy, and Shelley was among the many who was there for her through her long illness. Shelley and her band were our first friends in the Austin music community — over nine years ago. And we never forgot that long night the week after September 11th when Floramay was doing her usual gig at the Texas Chili Parlor (yes, Virginia, it used to be a live music venue) and closed out her set with a powerful version of “Freedom Songs.” Or that poignant tribute to fallen band member Kris Van Robbins (who, not coincidentally, was a close friend of Kevin Fowler — I will never forget the benefit those guys and others put on to help Kris’ grieving family). Good times, sad times, that’s how good friendships grow. Going to Cancun with Shelley and Perry and Floramay and Gabor and the whole entourage was a heluva wonderful way to share our 25th wedding anniversary (even better, our daughter and HER husband came along for the week-long party).
But to the business at hand. I love this record — nearly every song touches me in the heart. Floramay, by the way, grew up on a plantation in South Carolina with her musical family (her brother James Ervin plays bass and a little guitar on this record, her sister sang on a prior one) and later spent time working on a dude ranch in Idaho (and with all those Idaho musicians blowing Austin away, maybe picking up some of her musical skills there too). Then it was Austin for quite a long time — and lots of great memories — and a storybook romance of her own that she will maybe tell you sometime.
OKAY — forget the first 12 cuts for a moment and concentrate on the “Roseneath Romance” that closes out this collection of songs and stories. This is a tribute to her grandparents, James and FLoramay McLeod, and the romance begins with Floramay on piano, her brother James on acoustic guitar, plus Jeff Stockham on french horn and Joe Devoli on violin. The moving instrumental eventually gives way to the song itself — a tale of a gentle courtship that grew into a lifelong love, one that formed much of the framework for Floramay’s own childhood. I would buy the record JUST for these two amazingly wonderful linked pieces.
But of course that’s not all, folks! This may be Floramay’s best songwriting to date (and I have loved both of her prior recordings) — some songs are silly, others (including one “co-written” with 18th Century evangelist John Wesley) cut deep, but in all of them we get Floramay’s honest voice and that twinkle in her eye that she is famous for. “Yesterday’s Girl” kicks off the festivities. Is Floramay telling on herself (or maybe just exaggerating? — or is she totally making it all up — when she sings, “Born spoiled rotten in the land of cotton, Way on down in Dixie, She used to dance till dawn with her high heels on, feelin’ young and sexy ….” Now, I have to mention that Floramay went all the way to upstate New York to find the Barrigar Brothers (Kevin and Loren, on guitars and vocals) and their pals Matthew Rockwell (drums), Andy Rudy (piano), Leonard Stephens (pedal steel), Jeff Stockham (trumpet and French horn), and Devoli. Shelley King also sings, Gabor sings and plays harmonica, and a huge chorus of Racz women and friends — the Amazing Women of the Lake, or AWOL Singers, contribute to “Girl’s Night Out,” which MUST truly be an autobiographical song!
Speaking of fun, first there’s “Momma’s Motorcycle,” “that pretty little engine R-65,” and yet this simple little song (with pedal steel, no less) has this line about “dreams get lost when you get distracted…” Then there’s that song Gabor helped write, “Rainbows,” and that line, “You don’t need direction to know where you are…” See — fun with a bite! And there’s that good-time-feeling “Big Blue Eyes,” about taking a family drive in the summertime. “These Days” is anything but funny — “little girl lookin’ out an old front door, Watch her daddy drive away, she’s seen it before … “ But later, “We’re all under the stars, So many children with a broken heart, Find a way to believe in love, Say your prayers before you dream, God gives us the reason, To forgive Daddy’s leavin’ ….” My pals Jack Dorman and Geno Hildebrandt over at Hope Chapel love to quote John Wesley’s famed saying, “Earn all you can, Save all you can, Give all you can.” Here Floramay, in “As Long As You Can,” reminds us that we are loved “by the One up above” and we must therefore not forget to “do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, whenever you can, by and by, to all the ones you can, as long as you can — Amen, Amen.”
One of the best songs (from a songwriter’s perspective) here is a joint effort with Floramay, Loren Barrigar, and Peter Ryan called “Perfect You.” On the record, it’s just Floramay on vocals and Loren Barrigar on acoustic guitar — and you never really know if this is a tragedy or a song of joy. Now, there is one cover tune — Megan Peters’ “Something To Tell You,” from her 1997 album “About Time,” which featured Mike Cross on bass and Paul Pearcy on drums. I think Floramay picked this one to sing to her husband — that part about him being a wrinkled old dude in a hundred years.
My favorite song (other than the Roseneath Romance) on the record seems to be “Slow Rain,”a pure and simple love song — “Singing you a new song Always sets me free, And I love it when you sing along in sweet harmony…..” But it is the chorus that makes this one special to me — “The sun rose and the moon goes around this old world, And the seasons flow like water when you’re near .. As we grow, I know there’s nothing left to fear, Home is where the heart is, and my heart will be right here, There’s a slow rain falling to wash away the tears…” And, yes Jenni W., there IS a French horn here!
Duggan Flanakin
May 05, 2009
You outlawed country music when Jessica Simpson took a stab. But with all the rap crap (as Dad used to say) streaming on the radio, you’re craving down-home ballads again. Return to your roots with Floramay Holliday’s third CD, Dreams, which dropped this week. The blonde Dallas belle is Texas’s best-kept secret. Even Willie Nelson is a fan. (Clearly, she’s got the pipes.) Her style mixes sweet melodic vocals and old-school country twang (“Coffee” is especially honky-tonk) with loads of sassy country chick lyrics (see: “Momma’s Motorcycle” and “Girl’s Night”). With wails like “You don’t send me flowers, you don’t pour my wine, you don’t take me dancing, there is no candlelight,” you know this album is all about girl power. Walk the line.
dailycandy
May 01, 2009
After taking time off to have two kids, Oak Cliff resident and alternative-country rocker Floramay Holliday is getting back in tune with a new album and a new lease on life. OC residents flooded the patio of Bolsa on Davis Street on Nov. 19 for more than just the great food. Holding court before the crowd of spectators was Holliday, a lanky blonde with a velvet voice. The Florence, S.C., native — who is eagerly awaiting the debut of her as yet untitled third album — has been playing guitar for more than two decades, but this was her first show in four years. “We were very pleased to have her perform at Bolsa,” said Chris Jeffers, one of the restaurant’s owners. “She’s an amazing performer and real genuine person.” If her name sounds familiar, it’s because Holliday used to play her alt-rock sound at venues throughout Texas. She was a regular in the Austin music scene before her husband’s career led them to Oak Cliff.
“Bolsa was my first public gig in a while,” Holliday said. “This neighborhood is great. The Bishop Arts District is a lot like Austin, and I feel so lucky to be here. I still get butterflies before performing, but it’s a good kind of nervous.” Her new album, which is slated for release in January, was recorded in upstate New York and produced by her company, Roseneath Records. It follows her 1998 self-titled debut and her 2004 follow-up, Trouble and a Truer Sound. “Each record is like a snapshot of my life,” Holliday said. “I’m really at peace now in my life. I write my own songs from life experiences. Music is a conduit.” Holliday said some of the inspiration for the album came from her favorite singers such as Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne. She also collaborated with notable Texas musicians Guy Clark and Shelley King, whom she plays with in her all-girl rock band, Sis Deville. She’s looking at venues such as the Granada Theater for the album’s release party.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become a lot more comfortable with my singing,” Holliday said. “I just like making people feel happy. It feels good when people get up and dance.” Holliday has performed at a variety of notable festivals, including Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic, Best of Texas Ladies Songwriters in Luckenbach, Women in Texas Music at Greune Hall, and Old Settler’s Music Festival, as well as shows in Hungary and Greece. In 2000, former Austin Mayor Kirk Watson proclaimed Nov. 2 as “Floramay Holliday Day” in recognition of her contributions to the capital city’s music community. Holliday said she was so excited to get back into her music that the long hours and intense recording schedule didn’t faze her. “We were really lucky to have had such great engineers on this album,” Holliday said. “We were always on the same page as the songs were evolving. It feels so good to dive back into the music when you haven’t done it for a while. I’m so blessed to have it in my life and so proud of it.”
Silver Hogue
November 28, 2008
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