Holly Ann – Light and Bloom

Holly Ann
Light and Bloom
Deeper Well Records (release date: January 13, 2016)
www.deeper-well.com

By Bob Marovich

Last year, Liz Vice demonstrated that some of the best spiritual music doesn’t have to come from established channels of gospel and CCM talent.

Portland, Oregon’s Christian alternative singer-songwriter Holly Ann Winchell (aka Holly Ann) is another pleasant discovery in this same vein.  Released last month on Deeper Well Records, her Light and Bloom is a great big introspective thank you letter to God.

The album’s praise songs are atmospheric and minimal, Holly Ann’s voice beguiling and poignant. Although her publicity cites Mazzy Star as an inspiration—and I certainly hear that in the lonely, empty spaces that frame the songs—Holly Ann is likely to stimulate comparisons to Tori Amos and Kate Bush, especially when she blue yodels into her high register.

The lyrics evoke the delightful subtleties of vernacular poetry that have evaded gospel music in its current quest for repetitive stanzas. On “Carry You,” Holly Ann likens God’s salvation to a moving river that “takes you out so you can’t see anymore the things that you left behind.” The message of “First Love,” as well as the album’s focus on the faith struggle, is captured in one of its most prominent lines: “Your perfect love has transformed me, but I keep trying to stay the same.” She expresses a similar sentiment in “River’s End:” “I only call you when I’m losing / I only need you when I’m high and dry.”

“Better than Gold” contains everything that’s right about Light and Bloom: supportive but not overpowering music, Holly Ann’s liquid vocals, and another beautiful and memorable lyric to describe her relationship with God: “Where do I start and where do you begin?”

If God wasn’t already in love with Holly Ann, He would be after hearing Light and Bloom.

Five of Five Stars

Picks: “Better than Gold,” “Carry You.”