Evolution: Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs

HOLLY GOLIGHTLY and the Brokeoffs' "Getting High for Jesus" sounds like it's been passed around for years, from the Mississippi delta to the Appalachian Mountains.

But it hasn't.

Golightly and partner Lawyer Dave (who effectively is the Brokeoffs) wrote the song for last month's "Dirt Don't Hurt," the second album from the duo. The entire record is seeped in American roots music, which isn't surprising if you're familiar with the British-born Golightly, but it is if you're not.

She may speak with a British accent, but she sings like a perfect Southern belle.

"With country music, I think about it in terms of belonging to lots of different people," Golightly said. "I think lots of European folk music had to influence it in the early days. It has so many different flavors because it came from so many different places. It is folk music, after all."

Even more surprising, she recorded the mud- and whiskey-soaked disc in Spain. Though, she said, location has little bearing on the music she makes.

"Well, I don't ever think about it in those terms because I've always written country songs even though I have no real knowledge of country music," she said. "I play in that formula because it's an easy formula. I'm not particularly technically gifted when it comes to playing guitar, so I'm sort of limited by the 12 bar blues."

Before her more recent rootsier days, Golightly was in the all-girl garage-rock group Thee Headcoatees. She's toured with a four-piece British backing band, and, more recently, Lawyer Dave.

"I found the stuff I really like 20 years ago and the music has continued to be a continuing influence on me, and I've sort of stuck with that," she said. "I kind of do it from my perspective, which is a sort of punk-rocking thing. I'm not a purist; what I do, I do in any way I can."

So, it's evolution by default, then.

"I have managed to eke out all these years' worth of writing songs based on a 12 bar," Golightly said, "but I haven't learned anything new."

» Iota, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; Delaney Davidson, Thu., 9 p.m., $15; 703-522-8340. (Clarendon)

Written by Express contributor Rudi Greenberg
Photo courtesy Conqueroo