Music Review: Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs, Sunday Run Me Over

By Danny R. Phillips

Country music—as a genre—has been a crapshoot for the last decade or so. For every Wayne Hancock or Justin Townes Earle that wade into the deep end of true country song craft, there’s a Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, or Sugarland that claim the country mantle but are merely pop acts with lap steel.

That’s why I find a group like Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs to be such a kick in the pants; they embrace instrumentation as if they were recording with the Carter Family, and give bear hugs to tradition. Holly, an Englishwoman by birth, delivers more twang than Loretta Lynn. Two songs in, you’d swear she just walked down from The Blue Ridge Mountains with her flour sack dress on, well-worn Bible tightly in her hand. It is a respite from the everyday, manufactured “country” backwash.

Sunday Run Me Over is the perfect companion to last year’s fantastic (and my #2 album of the year behind Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light) No Help Coming (reviewed here).

Whereas No Help Coming was a sometimes somber and always moving affair, Sunday Run Me Over is an all-out party. The original offerings are hot-blooded and raucous, while the choices of covers are both hilarious (Mac Davis’ ode to ego “It’s Hard to be Humble”) and interesting like The Davis Sisters’ 1953 hit “I Forgot More.” Their take on Wayne Raney’s “We Need A lot More Jesus (And A lot Less Rock and Roll)” is a nice addition to the album, even with Holly and the boys changing it to “a lot More Rock and Roll,” a line far more fitting for this crew.

There are no clunkers on this record. From the opener “Goddamn Holy Roll” (an explosion of musical insanity) through “One For The Road” to the venom spitting “Goodnight,” Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs have crafted yet another piece of country stomp; they are able to shift gears, make people laugh and cry, and all without the use of a pop hook or Autotune.

Sunday Run Me Over is the prime example of what country should sound like. I hope people are listening.

Sunday Run Me Over will be released October 9 on Transdreamer Records through Megaforce and can be ordered from the label’s website. For more on Holly Golightly and The Brokeoffs, check out the band’s website.

Tour Dates:

Oct 09: The Saint; Asbury Park, NJ
Oct 10: The Fire; Philadelphia, PA
Oct 11: Northside Tavern; Cincinnati, OH
Oct 12: ZaZoo’s; Louisville, KY
Oct 13: Mickey Finn’s Pub; Toledo, OH
Oct 14: Beachland Tavern; Cleveland, OH
Oct 15: Detroit Farm and Garden; Detroit, MI
Oct 17: Jackpot Music Hall; Lawrence, KS
Oct 18: The Firebird; St Louis, MO
Oct 19: JJ’s Bohemia; Chattanooga, TN
Oct 20: The EARL; Atlanta, GA