Texas native Ali Holder was first brought up on outlaw country but in the decades since, her sensibilities have sponged up the likes of Janis Joplin, Wilco, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Jenny Lewis, Patty Griffin, Neko Case, and more recently Possessed by Paul James and Brandi Carlile. The result is an outstanding auteur who doesn’t feel restrained by any one genre in her guitar/vocal-driven songwriting, be it with indie, jazz, blues, folk, country, or Americana.
Holder moved to Austin after college and quickly harbored her talent within the folk-centric Ali Holder & the Broken Hearted as well as the R&B-inspired Ali Holder & the Raindoggs. Now, following up two EPs and one LP under her namesake, Ali Holder has just shared a dozen new brutally honest tracks on her sophomore solo full-length, Uncomfortable Truths. Staying faithful to its title, Uncomfortable Truths finds Holder tapping deep into her emotions and inner thoughts, proving itself as a set of confessionals across topics like marriage, creativity, chronic pain, privilege, empathy and more through an impressive palette of styles. Uncomfortable Truths came out last Friday and since nobody can really claim the “I don’t have time” excuse these days, go ahead and get started with the album opener, “Take Me As I Am”!
–Jack Anderson
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