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