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| The Road Less Traveled |
| band: Light, Holly |
| Album: Forgiveness Road |
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I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~ From "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
Forgiveness Road sets out on a humbling journey to a home in disrepair. That song is set well after the love affair when the cards are on the table and the game is best when both players win. Holly Light has the voice and the spirit to sustain passion when picking up the pieces is part of the love story. There's a goodbye song and a nod to the joy of hooking up, but what stands out and stands up on this album is the joy of acting right and hanging in. Without a little passion in the protection of what is chosen there'd be nothing more than good beginnings and bad breakups.
Holly is an adult with a voice and presence that embraces an audience. When with a small ensemble at The Mint or in the conflicted sonic environment of an outdoor festival this Light orchestra gets a song across and lights up the fireplace in the audience. The voice of this band is in the songs soulfully sung with a deep river strength and emotional color simple as it feels. Holly can growl out the tough stuff and bend with the blues without fishing for effect. The song feels right and story comes through direct without trying for something "extra" that wouldn't help. Like a friend once advised: "There ain't no lobster in the Mississippi River."
Live Holly Light has a boatload of Texas blues but the holy water of hope is always there to salve the bruised. There's plenty of husk in her voice when she belts out the pain but the sweet cornel of her sound is unbleached wheat for the fresh baked loaf of a shared supper. The Peacedriven Song Writing Award went to Holly this year making her certified in her hopefulness. There's a touch of Melissa Etheridge in her delivery and a cup or two of sifted James Taylor in her lyrics. She's got the pop of Southern gospel in a little Creole gumbo here and there. Most of all I hear the good news of keep on keeping on in a lyric that doesn't miss the hard parts. For my mother, the last two lines of the Frost poem was triumphant. I lost her last year. I hear my mother's voice on this album, and the forgiveness she freely gave on the hard journey she chose and stuck by. "I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference."
THE SONGS:
1. FORGIVENESS ROAD has the distant cry of Jay Gore's lonesome electric guitar singing out the wail like regret echoing from the gut. "Won't you please hold me?" This song doesn't make excuses for personal failings and can't have been easy to write. The journey down Forgiveness Road is given proper wait. "I came undone… I crashed down… I left you scarred and let you down. I want to say I'm sorry, baby, for making it so hard for you to just hold me. Take me as I am. Won't you please hold me. Won't you please take me by the hand and lead me down Forgiveness Road." This I must say is the road less taken.
2. MY BABY sings the tribute of the love "just the way my Momma said someone's bound to." That's just a great line, my opinion. There's the good and bad love and a little wicked at the proper moment. Good love, my baby.
3. OVER begins simple and catchy in a moment reminiscent of times past, but the Leslie on the B-3 supports the warmth of a "Don't tell me it's not over" conversation at the end of "tired of all the trying and crying" relationship. This sweet and sorrowful parting has the heart to sweeten the certainty of "ain't nothing left for us in me." Good song for that necessary exchange after the one straw too many in a gave it a go relationship. "There's nothing left of you and me. Goodbye's hurt when it's over." The vulnerable courage in this song is hope.
4. LOVE YA (written by Gilli Moon) has a little complaint for the loved one that don't feel good standing close. "I love you, I just can't stand you." Time to kick in the fuzz box for this ironic sloe gin rocker.
5. RED, WHITE AND BLUES (written by Holly Light and Lori Valesko) is a political song that lays it right without getting you down. The sad clique of money, power and intolerance are skewered with a little ironic humor and appropriate angst. When this kind of song goes wrong the English call it "earnest." Heard live on the album, I perk up a little at this romp. "Don't you want to save your country?" Just agreeing with the politics doesn't make it a song. Said right with a little fire in the belly, this song avoids the pitfalls and rocks out the blues at what's messed up and out of control on a grand murderous scale in our fair country and the misadventures abroad.
6. HURRICANE (written by Holly Light and Gilli Moon) "You work for what you want. You fight every day for what you need. But life's become an endless search for something you swear will set your free." A song by a friend knows you are crashing in a hurricane inside. "All I want to do for you is take you in my arms at the end of every day, and rock you in my arms until everything falls away. I want to stop the rain, my hurricane."
7. AMELIA has ballad strength in Holly's voice and an occasional doubled vocal that breaks through all defenses. The rhythm here is a slower touch of Steppenwolf's "The Pusher" with an unrelated purpose. "You talk so much, you got nothing left to say. Amelia don't you run away!" There's plenty of calming in the repeated "rest Amelia" for the high strung lover maybe napping on the couch. "Remember my name or your name or your reason to live…"
8. TRUE (written by Gilli Moon) has a crackling torch burning for a lover. "True to me as I am true to you." The groove is never abandoned on this sensual tribute song. Holly takes the distant mic for some of the inner thoughts in this song. Bruce Watson has a spooky tooth on the guitar cutting through to the tactile part of a sweat drenched love song.
9. GIVE IT EVERYTHING YOU GOT is an encouragement blues that don't ignore the tough stuff. "Reach down deep when you want to cry… Give it everything" Bluesy rocker might find a day you need it.
10. SENTIMENTAL, I PRESUME (written by Gilli Moon) has a little gut string swing in a slow heartbreak song. "Time tends to make you look at the memories." Sentimental song.
11. KEEP RISING UP incites the insurrection of love in a life of difficult things. "Don't give up on hope. Don't give up on love. Don't give up on grabbing the struggle head on and rising above." This bluesy Texas waltz has a theater organ pumping out the church, and the reconnecting urge that fuels the humanity as the uncoded truth behind this mystical epistle. "Don't give up on me. I won't give up on you." This is a slow dance should be done with a partner held close.
CLICK ON THE PICTURE GO TO HOLLY LIGHT'S MYSPACE PAGE
Artist Information
Instrumentation
Solo to full band...current configuration:
Holly Light: vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, harmonica
Lori Valesko: percussion
Andy Catt: bass, vocals
Shawn Cunnane: electric guitar and mandolin
Rick Friedmand: drums
Joseph John: piano, organ
Cara Henry & Andrea Williams: backing vocals
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