If Andrew Bird and Devendra Banhart were fighting for Fiona Apple's attentions, she might appease them with something like this. Holland's quavery lo-fi folk-pop is perfectly suited to her baroque Southern topics; songs like "Old Fashion Morphine" could have been penned in the Civil War.
Jolie Holland's is a voice that attempts to transcend the new and encompass the old through the medium of American music. Like Ralph Stanley told her, "I don't even know what bluegrass music is--I consider myself a soul singer." So, yes, its the blues, and the tunes our grandparents hummed on unpaved highways, but its the same songs that coaxed tears out of the punk rock boy at the bar. The ladies swayed, the street kids hooted with bright eyes, the hip hop composer unselfconsciously slipped his hand over his heart, and your momma tapped her foot. New time old time: spooky American fairytales.