Simple Truths by The Holmes Brothers

Simple Truths, the Holmes Brothers' 2004 album for Alligator, was cut in just four days at The Sound Factory with Craig Street producing, and the Virginia trio sound as unhurried as if they'd had a month. Street added a little extra shading, Greg Leisz on steel guitar and Patrick Warren on pump organ, but the heart of it is those voices, rough and sweet at once.

Only four of the songs are their own. The rest are covers picked for their words, and the choices range wide: a "Shine" modeled on Dolly Parton's reading, a fuzz-toned "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", and a take on Townes Van Zandt's "If I Needed You" that Mother Jones found breathtaking and churchy. The Leader-Post heard them landing between the stately gospel of the Blind Boys of Alabama and T-Model Ford's rough blues, which is about right. They took it on the road across North America, and a year later the Blues Foundation named them Band of the Year.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.