- Holcombe played in local bands like The Hilltoppers and Redwing, and collaborated with other songwriters like Ray Sisk, Sam Milner, and Dallas Taylor.
- Throughout the 2000's and up to 2022, Malcolm Holcombe would record for independent labels and released well-regarded albums. This whole time, his cult status as a songwriter only grew.
- His voice went from weathered to sounding like death itself gasping through broken teeth, but conveyed an infinite beauty all its own.
- Frustrated by his experience in Nashville, he would eventually return to North Carolina, and though touring occasionally across the United States, he became synonymous with the state as one of the true representatives of the North Carolina sound.
- Like many of the best musicians, Malcolm Holcombe could be his own worst enemy. Sweet when sober, erratic when drunk, this is what doomed his career at multiple turns.
- He was one of the songwriters who work in the shadows and always have, because they cower from the spotlight, self-sabotage whenever success starts to come within their grasp, and would never feel comfortable in their own skin if their sound reached beyond the four walls of dingy listening rooms in backwater locations.
- Convinced by peers that his music was too good to only be heard in night spots in the southeast, he moved to Nashville in 1990, taking the job as a dishwasher at the Douglas Corner Cafe (RIP) to make ends meet.
- Since the earliest portions of his career, Holcombe performed solo as a singer and songwriter, blending folk and early country influences into alluring melodies and compelling stories.
- He earned the attention of Geffen Records in 1996 and signed to the label to record the album A Hundred Lies. Promotional copies were sent out, and received high praise. But with no commercial prospects for the project, it was shelved for three years, eventually coming out in 1999 as a reissue on Hip-O Records.
- When he was young he sounded old. Even in health he seemed to be ravaged with sickness. Holcombe was like the very hills and valleys, roots, rocks, soil and branches singing out, if you were patient and quiet enough to hear them, and knew where to seek out their audience.
- Malcolm Holcombe was known as a survivor. He fought off Cancer to record his final album Bits and Pieces with long-time collaborator Jared Tyler in 2022. At the time, Holcombe and Tyler didn't know if he would even make it through the sessions, but he did.
- On March 2nd 2024, he had emergency surgery, and was placed on a ventilator.
- There are those musicians whose songs and influence work like the scaffolding holding up the facade of American roots. Malcolm Holcombe was one of these elemental songwriters. Too raw, authentic, and unpolished for the spotlight, but a spellbinding influence on many who gladly step into it.
- He partnered with Ray Sisk and Dallas Taylor in a trio, and released the album Trademark with Sam Milner in 1985.
- After graduating high school, Holcombe went to tech school and college, but couldn't cut it. It was clear the pull of music was stronger, and that's where he ultimately pointed his nose.
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