If you’ve been reading me for a while, you know that social connections with my friends on the other side of the ocean are fundamental to me.
Basically, every day I receive direct suggestions or I notice videos on their pages: it’s a real job to keep up with all these new artists, all this quality music.
One of the first artists I met, in a group of Whiskey Myers fans, was the Texan Kayla Jane: her cover of a piece by the band had touched my soul.
Over the years I got to know her, I made her become, against her will, an extra in one of my novels, I also met her in person and I discovered some of her artist friends who have voices as beautiful as hers.
Texas has always been an almost inexhaustible reservoir of talent and independent music in recent times is drinking from its source: so much talent and so little time to discover it all.
Andi Holleman is not only Texan, but she lives in one of the cities with the most vibrant music scene in the state: New Braunfels, and those who pay attention know that my novels are set right here: destiny.
The disc is composed of 6 pieces and that are the prelude to a truly interesting career.
Andi has a powerful and exciting voice and just listen to the first, Dallas Tonight, to be guided in her Texan stories, guided by her crazy uvula.
A vibrant song full of soul character and so much talent.
All 6 songs are written by Holleman and show us her ability as a songwriter, as in the beautiful title track, Going South is a journey that is a bit blues, a bit rock, that I enjoyed very much and so immersed in the place where it was imagined and recorded, that is, the wonderful Gruene.
Mama’s Music is a song from another time and Andi‘s wonderful voice seems to have been created for songs like this, plus we have the presence of the other fantastic artists who are part of the group The Billie Jeans with her: Kayla Jane, Alli Mattice and Kelany Brent.
The violin gives melancholy of the past, but the voices of these girls are honey for the soul: I love them, I admit.
The Storm is a song with crazy intensity: the voice, the rhythmic gait and the pedal-steel in the background.
This girl knows how to write beautiful songs and we notice it at every stop: like in the sunny and lively Getting Stoned.
Beautiful guitars and great rhythm, but as in the other songs the secret is Andi‘s vocal cords: a real gift.
The album closes with a ballad, Running On Fumes and in my opinion this is a real gem, one of my favorite songs of this 2024 and that will make many fall in love with the music of this Texan girl: intense, exciting and not banal.
I confess that I pressed “repeat” several times and each time I caught a different nuance of this wonderful song.
A debut that gives the world a perfect demonstration of Andi Holleman’s ability as a singer-songwriter and above all places her voice as one of the most intense, evocative and exciting of the American independent scene.
Only 6 songs, but that leave so many emotions to the listener who feels like he has listened to at least double.
I wish Andi to collect the success she deserves for her talent and her passion and obviously I hope soon to be able to finally tell you about the debut album of The Billie Jeans: an all-female band that promises to be a real explosion of emotions, colors and movement.
Enjoy your listening,
Trex
