Musician and acclaimed visual artist Lonnie Holley gets an assist from former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe on “Oh Me, Oh My,” the title track from his upcoming Jagjauwar album. The Jacknife Lee-produced project will be released March 10 and also features appearances by Sharon Van Etten, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Moor Mother, and Rokia Koné.
“My art and my music are always closely tied to what is happening around me, and the last few years have given me a lot to thoughtsmith about,” says the Alabama-born Holley, whose four-decade journey as an outsider artist has found him creating everything from sandstone carvings to trash sculptures and unlearned folk paintings. “When I listen back to these songs I can feel the times we were living through. I’m deeply appreciative of the collaborators, especially Jacknife, who helped the songs take shape and really inspired me to dig deeper within myself.”
Holley, who only began making music in 2012, is also the main subject in the new podcast Unreformed, which chronicles the inhuman conditions and abusive treatment at the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children in the 1950s and ’60s.
Here is the track list for Oh Me Oh My:
“Testing”
“I Am a Part of the Wonder” (with Moor Mother)
“Oh Me, Oh My” (with Michael Stipe)
“Earth Will Be There” (with Moor Mother)
“Mount Meigs”
“Better Get That Crop in Soon”
“Kindness Will Follow Your Tears” (with Bon Iver)
“None of Us Have But a Little While” (with Sharon Van Etten)
“If We Get Lost They Will Find Us” (with Rokia Koné)
“I Can’t Hush”
“Future Children”
