Jolie Holland, the lovely, fluttery-voiced singer famous for the songs “Littlest Bird” and “Old Fashioned Morphine,” is embarking on something brand new this month, but something that’s also rooted deeply in her past: a tour with songwriter Samantha Parton along the West Coast and Canada. 

“No matter what Wikipedia says,” Holland says, “Sam and I were the two original songwriters in The Be Good Tanyas. She was in a bad car accident three years ago and is just now starting to tour [again]. I put together a band–a couple of my NYC players–to back up Sam and I singing. This is our first tour in almost 15 years.” 

Holland, Parton and their band will stop in Seattle at the Triple Door main stage for a performance on Wednesday, Feb. 17, and since I’m a big fan, I thought I’d ask the two musicians a few questions about their upcoming adventure. 

 

Jake Uitti: Where are you guys at the moment?

Jolie Holland: We’re up in Vancouver, BC, in Sam’s little cabin. We’re practicing every day, working on new stuff. 

JU: You’re first gig of this new tour is in Olympia, Wash., on Feb. 15and you hit Seattle on Feb. 17 – what was the impetus for the tour and what songs are you looking forward to playing together?

JH: It was just sort of time. I got a new booker and I didn’t feel like putting out my own record in 2016 – I’ll probably record a new record in 2016 – but I was looking for someone else to tour with and I was so happy that Sam was into the idea. I was all set to be turned down but I just called her up.

Samantha Parton: She got me at the right time. I’ve had some really long troubles after the car accident and one of the most frustrating things was not being able to play; that my life in music had really shrunk. I’d been saying to myself 2016. [That year] is my goal. It would be the year for me to get back to music and Jolie called me at the right time when I was making that promise to myself and setting that intention.

JH: Otherwise I was going to start an Abba cover band with my cat! 

JU: Oh, what kind of cat do you have? 

JH: (Laughs) I don’t have a cat. I just have a teddy bear, but he wasn’t available. 

JU: Samantha, I can only try to imagine the PTSD you must experience while on the road again after your accidents. How do you cope with that? 

SP: That did come up with my therapist. I’ve been given some tools to help deal, so I feel prepared for that part. I did tour after the car accident – I tried to tour with The Be Good Tanyas and that was a really big issue. I was terrified. I was triggered in the tour van on the interstates and it was a very scary experience for me mid-tour. I got into that with my therapist who helped me through. You know, I trust [band mates] Jolie and Stevie and Jared who will be driving. I feel safe with them. 

JU: This may be a strange question, but was there any benefit to the accident, in terms of having to go through strengthening yourself and searching parts of your mind that you hadn’t before? 

SP: That’s a really good question. I wish it had never happened, of course. Everybody – life happens to everybody. It’s going to happen one way or another. Some shit is going to happen to you in your life whether it’s illness, an accident, a break-up or death, there is just loss in life and I feel like I’ve been a very fortunate person in that I haven’t had a lot of that. But I have had a hell of a lot of that in the last three years. The hits keep coming! It’s made me definitely stronger for sure. There’s that whole thing about relationships you have with some people becoming stronger and others going away. Sometimes that’s a good time and sometimes it’s really sad. I also learned a lot about my body, I have a new consciousness regarding my well being. 

JU: What are you looking forward to most about the tour? 

JH: Everybody in the band is great. I picked the nicest people to be a part of this band. Some real road dogs, too; people who know how to have a good time on the road. 

SP: There’s a communion that happens when you’re touring. Experiencing a car accident or getting sick, those things can be isolating. So the communion is going to be something I’m looking forward to, that kind of connection. 

JU: Jolie, I’ve been a fan of your music and your sound for years. Can you talk about how you developed your voice’s beautiful lilt and how you might be progressing to a more guttural sound? 

JH: Well, I’m from Houston so maybe I’m getting away from being worried about sounding like a Southerner. I think so many people from the south try to hide their accent but I think I’m getting more comfortable with it. And I do enjoy more guttural singing. My favorite living singer is Mavis Staples and she has a growly sound. I do really like that gospel style of singing. 

But it’s also good to not be too conscious of what you’re doing. I’ve just been listening to rehearsal tapes and it’s often the second-to-last take that sounds good. The last one you’re a little too smart. So it’s good not to think about it. 

I’ve been singing more in natural scales and lots of writing on the last album is in natural scales. It’s hard to get harmony singers to sing in that scale. If the lead is in a natural scale anyone who harmonizes with it can’t sing piano notes. The natural scale doesn’t align with the piano. 

SP: You can imagine my struggle… 

JH: No! You’re so brilliant. You go through it naturally. 

SP: And I agree with the not thinking about things too much. 

JU: Jolie, you’re label mates [ANTI-] and a noted great admirer of Tom Waits. My last question is: what’s your favorite Tom Waits story? 

JH: I like a lot of his quotes. He said something really sweet about Keith Richards that actually helped me stay out of my head on stage. He said Keith Richards doesn’t play music, music plays Keith Richards. And he also said something else great about him – something like you know we all love music but what we really want is for music to love us back and that’s the way it is with Keith Richards. 

It’s a real paradox and it doesn’t make any sense. But it just sort of points you ina a certain direction. There’s an I Ching hexagram about the purpose of music. I forget which one it is. I think it’s called Enthusiasm in most of the translations and it says that music has the power to release the grip of obscure emotions from upon the heart. I think music is very emotionally clarifying. 

Updated on February 16 to reflect the correct spelling of Mavis Staples.