On Wednesday August 5th, Live Nation will be featuring No Service Fee Wednesdays! To take advantage of this offer for my September 26 show at The Paris in New Orleans, just go to Live Nation anytime between 12:00am EST on 8/5 and 12:00am PST on 8/6.

Also, my fall tour dates have recently been announced. Check the dates below to see when I'll be playing near you!

Aug 22 2009 Mississippi Studios Portland, Oregon
Sep 16 2009 Space Gallery Portland, Maine
Sep 17 2009 Brattle Theater Cambridge, Massachusetts
Sep 18 2009 Le Poisson Rouge New York, New York
Sep 19 2009 The M Room Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sep 20 2009 The Southern Charlottesville, Virginia
Sep 21 2009 The Arts Center Carrboro, North Carolina
Sep 22 2009 Double Door Inn Charlotte, North Carolina
Sep 24 2009 Eddie’s Attic Decatur, Georgia
Sep 25 2009 Bottletree Birmingham, Alabama
Sep 26 2009 The Parish New Orleans, Louisiana
Sep 27 2009 McGonigels Mucky Duck Houston, Texas
Sep 28 2009 Stubbs BBQ Austin, Texas
Sep 30 2009 Club Congress Tucson, Arizona
Oct 1 2009 Acoustic Music San Diego, California
Oct 3 2009 Largo Los Angeles, California
Oct 4 2009 Independent San Francisco, California
Oct 6 2009 Triple Door Seattle, Washington
Oct 7 2009 Mississippi Studios Portland, Oregon
Oct 9 2009 Urban Lounge Salt Lake City, Utah
Oct 10 2009 Walnut Room Denver, Colorado
Oct 11 2009 The Waiting Room Omaha, Nebraska
Oct 12 2009 Varsity Theatre Minneapolis, Minnesota
Oct 13 2009 High Noon Saloon Madison, Wisconsin
Oct 14 2009 Schubas Tavern Chicago, Illinois
Oct 15 2009 Russian Recording Bloomington, Indiana
Oct 16 2009 The Dame Lexington, Kentucky
Oct 17 2009 Stuarts Opera House Nelsonville, Ohio

To Whom It May Concern, Regarding my New Fake Name

I, Jolie Holland, was ignorant of fate enough to have allowed my "band name" to be my actual name, so that now, if I play backup violin in a friend's experimental band, and he puts my name on the bill, people will show up and expect me to perform as "my band" and not the musician formerly (unknown) as 'Jolie Holland' who is also a backup singer, and violinist, and etc. So in order to be a well-rounded and happy musician, who gets to be in other people's bands, and not just front a band; and at the same time also not confuse people, who might expect me to play my songs just because they see my name on a bill, I have come to a ridiculous decision. When I am part of a show where I'm not going to play my songs, I'll be billed as Bell Denmark, which is a nickname Michael Musika of San Francisco gave me years ago.

Michael used to do kind of a micro micro cultural "society pages" kind of gossip column thing and everyone had fake names that were adorably obvious to all of us. Chris Powers was Magic Powers and etc. I like the name Bell Denmark, because I am fond of bells themselves. Jason Leonard, with whom I have the duo band "Dark Eyed Junco" plays lots of bells, and he likes to quote this quote about them--"to hear the 'noise of the bell' is to dissolve the limitations of one's existence in time." And I like the last name Denmark because it reminds me of scratches wolf puppies might make on the walls of their den. Incidentally, I'm not Dutch nor Danish. This solution is backwards of the usual "having a band name, and using your given name on the side when you perform solo." Perhaps it is not as confusing as our dear Will Oldham's use of pseudonyms, god bless his heart. When I record with people I'll probably use my 'real name' and just use the nickname for live shows, to signify that I won't be performing my own material.

Anyhow, see y'all around.

Jolie Holland
aka Bell Denmark

The Living and the Dead is now available in stores. You can pick it up at iTunes, Amazon, or your local record store.

You can also listen to the album in its entirety, streaming at Spinner. Click Here to listen.

The videos of my trip to Mog are up now! Head over to Mog now to check it out.

The Living and the Dead in stores 10/7! Pre-order it at Amazon by clicking here!

My upcoming album The Living and the Dead is streaming at MySpace. Click Here to listen!

You can also Pre-Order The Living and the Dead over at Amazon.com. Click Here to check out the pre-order.

The Living and the Dead in stores 10/7!

I heart my new band. We just played three songs for some industry
event, which I could not explain to anyone very well, even though my
manager tried to explain it to me repeatedly. We got to have our
first soundcheck! (We played two shows before but you don't get
soundchecks at festivals) The new road band is Rachel Blumberg on drums, Dave
Depper on bass, and Sean Flinn on guitar.

We flew into San Francisco out of Portland and back in less than 24
hours. That one night we had, Freddi Price, one of my favorite
people/musicians in the whole world invited us to his place down by
the water in Oakland. Its an incredible "last stronghold of the
Bohemians" there on the water. Francine, dearness, whose phone number
I had lost, was there. I'd loaned her my two precious baby banjo
ukuleles about two years previous, when I'd hit the road for
'Springtime' so I got my little babies back, safe and sound. Francine
is a lovely uke player. I didn't get a chance to check out her
houseboat, but I hear its amazing. My honey just gave me a copy of an
Anais Nin shortstory about a houseboat, so I'd just been imagining
that particular kind of life. It was a star studded event--Carla
Kihlstedt, Matthias Bossi, Dan Rathbun, and Nils from Faun Fables were
there. I didn't expect to see any of them, and it was fantastic.
Shoshi Perrey, about whom I wrote the song "honey girl" was there, as
well as Zoli Lundy, about whom I wrote one of the songs on "the
living..." Nieves showed us her new line of handmade body care--from
her little laboratory on the docks. (Beautiful
stuff--bynieves.com--I'm really into 'cloud of protection'...smells so
fine...she's into all these beautiful wood-derived scents) The piano
I used to have in San Francisco, a hundred year old monster, now
belongs to Freddi, so I got to have a visit with it. Sigh. We played
this version of Buckskin Stallion I've been kicking around for a
while. When I had the blues a while back, it kept cheering me up to
watch Jimmy Dale Gilmore do his version on youtube.

It was so great to have that sort of warm, homey experience (bonfire,
old friends) especially when I wasn't really expecting to see so many
people. The bay area was really sweet to us.

One of my favorite bizarre synchronicities of our 24 hour trip to San
Francisco, is that we happened to have lunch in the same place as my
Brooklyn friend and neighbor Matt Bauer. Sean, Rachel and I were
sitting there at the Jasmine Tea House on Mission, and Matt walked in
with his band and SAT RIGHT NEXT TO ME!!!! It took me a few seconds,
because I lost my glasses in Portland, but I said "Matt Bauer!" and
then I got a big bear hug from him. Matt and I have a band called
"the Gentleman Callers" that hasn't performed anywhere yet, unless you
count Prospect Park, where we played to audiences of moss,
woodpeckers, and robins. Matt is a gorgeous musician. His new record
"The Island Moved in the Storm" is ridiculously beautiful and creepy.
It contains lots of weird stories written from multiple perspectives
about a woman whose body was found in a river in Kentucky near where
Matt grew up. Matt happened to say, "Jolie, Jay here wants to get a
ukulele, do you have any advice for him?" So I got to lend Jay one of
my long lost ukes (he plays guitar in Matt's band.) Its always best
to keep instruments with people who will play them. Then Matt and co.
came to our weird industry show, where we enjoyed the open bar, the
cupcakes, and an actual acoustic set by Sammy Hagar!

Right now I'm sitting on the floor in Jason Leonard's studio. We're
listening to Professor Longhair while I'm writing this (my first blog
ever) and Jason is printing the stuff he's just carved out to make the
animated lettering for my new video for "Mexico City." He's designed
it a la Posada--black and red printed lettering with homemade
curliques. Its gorgeous. I'm going to head out in a minute to go see
GingGang play here in Portland.

And they were mindblowing. GingGang is fronted by Dennis Shaw, with
my old friend Stefan Jecusco on bass, an absolutely amazing violinist
named Annemarie Hoffman, and Jason Waugaman on the drums. They do
this kind of power glam Rembetika Metal, with intensely Goth overtones. Tight leather
pants, acrobatic minor classicalish arpeggios on violin and hot shit
electic guitar. Excellent songs, like for instance, there is one
about being eaten by a tiny magic tiger who lives in your scary goth
girlfriends's hair. It was so fun! Stefan was wearing a white tuxedo
jacket with tails and ermine fur trim, shiny cop sun glasses (at
night) and braids. A good old fashioned freakshow. Halleluiah.

So, about this video we just shot in Joshua Tree...Jason Leonard,
Rachel Blumberg, Sarah Nighswander (aka Sarah Gina Jones), Carey
Lamprecht, Bobby Dangerously (who is on the cover of "the living...")
were all with me on a similar in and out trip to make the video. I
just saw the first cut today. Shocking, you know, to check out your
first video. Stoney Sharp directed it. A prince among men, really.
He's like those great cooks I've met who can whip up Christmas dinner
for thirty without looking like they're doing anything. He made me
feel like we were out for a walk, talking about our favorite books,
and not on a set with a big super talented crew. We didn't plan it
this way, but I was wearing the dress I wore on the cover of the new
record, and Carey was wearing the dress I was wearing in a photo
that's inside the record. It definitely looks better on Carey than on
me.

Alright, y'all. That as my first installment of 'tour blog'--I can't
believe I'm doing this. Thanks, Nick Jaina, for the inspiration.
XXX~jolie

Now you reserve your copy of The Living and the Dead before it hits stores Octoober 7th. Head over to Amazon to pre-order The Living and the Dead.

Click Here to order today.

If you haven't already, head over to iTunes today to pick up "Mexico City" from the upcoming album The Living and the Dead.

Now you'll be able to take "Mexico City" with you everywhere you go.

Don't forget to pickup The Living and the Dead in stores 10/7!

"Mexico City", the first track from the upcoming album The Living and the Dead is now available for download on iTunes. Click Here to purchase "Mexico City."

You can also hear a second track, "Palmyra" from The Living and the Dead on Jolie's MySpace.

The Living and the Dead in stores 10/7!

Hello! This is Jolie Holland here.


I'm asking the general public here for help finding a lead on a lease or a longer-term sublet in Brooklyn or Manhattan. I'll be on tour on the other side of the country when my lease is up, so its challenging going through the proper channels, though I'm trying that too. I and my nest-mates need a large place--a large three bedroom, even up to a five bedroom place.


We need it for October 1st or November 1st. Please respond to hush222@gmail.com. I thought I'd put out all the feelers I could.


Love and Thanks,
Jolie Holland.