Lonnie Holley

Born in Birmingham, Alabama to a huge family, Lonnie Holley worked from the age of five, scraping money together doing odd jobs in the neighborhood and narrowly avoiding mortal danger at every turn, sometimes colliding with it head-on. Holley found his artistic calling after carving a pair of tombstones for his sister's children, who had died in a house fire. Using blocks of casting stone that had been discarded nearby, he was inspired to make work using found objects, exhibiting his sculptures in the Birmingham Museum of Art in 1981. And it wasn't until 2006 that Holley began recording music, dubbing improvised vocal and keyboard jams at an Alabama church that led to his debut album 'Just Before Music' in 2012. This year's 'Oh Me Oh My' is his most acclaimed record to date, digging into his traumatizing autobiography and using it to tell richly layered stories of survival and hope.