"Deborah Holland may have been a Bad Girl Once, but she is certainly a very good woman now with twice the talent she needs to succeed at anything she wishes and three times an extraordinary artist...in that I mean writer, vocalist, and stylist. Her album Bad Girl Once is splendid; chillingly warm and on target as anything I have heard since the first time I listened to Antonio Carlos Jobim and wondered how it is that some musicians can turn life into breathtaking art."
- Roger Deitz, Sing Out! Columnist
 
"’Exquisite’ is the word that springs to mind for this album. "
- Eddie O'Strange, Town and Country Radio Show, New Zealand
 
"Gritty, honest, funny and heartfelt."
- Paul Ingles, Independent Producer
 
“I just listened through your whole new cd and all I can say is ‘Wow!’ ‘Congratulations’! You've come up with a real winner! I marked several songs for airplay. It's such an upbeat cd - so rare these days!”
- Sonny Ochs, WRPI

BAD GIRL ONCE...
RageOn 0001
reviewed by Sing Out!

Buoyant, often self-deprecating humor characterizes Deborah Holland’s Bad Girl Once... from the start. “Bad Girl Once (Soccer Mom Now)” contrasts wild youth with current reality. “Song About Sex” skewers the ever-present marketing of sex. “The Violin Song” sung through the voice of a child who really hates those violin lessons is quite funny yet true. “The Theory of Relativity (It’s All Relative)” limns the perspective you need to really get yourself.
Then there are the more serious ones. “Waiting for the Fire” muses about how difficult it is to find real true intimacy while “On My Way” is about how hard it is to find meaningful direction in life and cherishing the journey. The finale “Last Year (Life Is Grand)" investigates picking up the pieces and moving on from bad times to better.
And there are arresting takes of “Sloop John B” and Stephan Foster’s ever-relevant “Hard Times.”
The album is beautifully wrought. Deborah’s singing is glorious, her support sturdy. Technically the album is excellent with sound that nearly explodes from the speakers as it rushes to embrace the ear.
Bad Girl Once... is a piquant blend of wit both sharp and knowing, keen observation and fine musicianship and recording technique. I’ve been a huge fan of Deborah Holland’s songs ever since I first encountered them in the 1980s group Animal Logic. This newest collection is Deborah at her best and most inviting. — MT


BOOK OF SURVIVAL
Reviewed by
Sing Out! - Winter 2000 Issue

Warning: This album contains "Hard To Be A Human In The Universe," one of those songs with the elusive songwriter's hook that grabs onto your neurons and sets up residency in your cerebrum for days after hearing it. This is usually a sign that good words and the right melody have mated to form the songwriter's Nirvana--a tune you can't get out of your head. But this one song is no fluke, and The Book of Survival has so much more than just one catchy song. Deborah Holland has a lovely, thoughtful voice--pitch perfect and expressive--just right for these personal words. She sings with wit and a subtle sly twinkle in her eye. Like Christine Lavin's songs, the songs seem to fit the author like a glove. Unlike Lavin's, there are songs that might be successful on a broader range of set lists, sung by lots of folks. In fact, it has been a long time since I so liked everything I heard on an album.
The truth is, in the Andy Warhol department Deborah Holland has already savored her allotted fifteen minutes of fame. As the lead singer of Animal Logic, the trio formed by ex-Police drummer Stewart Copeland and jazz bassist Stanley Clarke, Holland made quite a splash. Animal Logic recorded two super albums and brought cutting-edge, eclectic music to major stages around the world. Holland even appeared on David Letterman, the Tonight Show, VH-1 and MTV. But the most revealing sign of Holland's inner soul was evident on a little folk album she recorded in 1997 with Gadfly after Animal Logic disbanded, The Panic Is On: Songs From The Great Depression. A rock singer interested in political songs from the 1930s? What gives?
First the rock singer versus folk singer thing. the boundaries have been somewhat blurred since Dylan plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 and all the rock stars started unplugging again in the last few years on MTV. The Book of Survival contains singer-songwriter material as well-penned, and well-portrayed as anything contemporary folk or rock performers are now serving up. And in a retro way, the songs are a lot less "me, me, me" and a tad more "us, us, us" than the usual fare. Maybe that's because Holland has already been "there, there, there" and has the luxury of exploring topics she feels passionate about. I also like the fact that the album has a professional feel to it, a host of great acoustic sounds, produced with a light touch, lots of air and not overdone.
The songs? If Holland's contemporary "Faded Red Car" had been written about a horse instead of an automobile--it would be "Stewball." Few of us muck out stables nowadays, but we do have to muck out our personal and societal metaphoric stables--and that's what Deborah Holland does so well. It is a danger to write topical songs (remember those?). When taking on current events it is easy to sound preachy or trite. Note here. "Kids With Guns" is not trite but right, current affairs sung with pace and humanity. Even a song with a title "Pinochet And Margaret Thatcher" works and elicits a smile, as does "Happy Birthday, You're Turning 40." These are titles that would activate a "trite alert" warning if observed on another album. They work here because Holland possesses the heart and objectivity and talent to make even current events ache like a wry love song. It reminds me that good songs and a knowing voice have more than the power to entertain; these elements have the power to move a listener to a better place. Isn't that what contemporary folk used to do? -- RDeitz

Reprinted from Winter 2000 issue of Sing Out!
©2000 The Sing Out! Corporation
Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.

Reviewed by
Dirty Linen: Folk and World Music

Deborah Holland's songs are twisted. I mean that in the best way. A phrase like "Weak at Heart," the title of the opening track on The Book of Survival, suggests that the song that follows will be a sob story. Instead, Holland looks at the weak-hearted person with affection:

Not a quality that's easy to be proud of
Or of which to be ashamed
I just hope as you go marching through the wilderness
You'll never change

"I'm Sorry" also takes an unexpected turn. It starts out as apology and ends up as self-paean:

I am striving for perfection
Everybody's gonna love me
I could kiss my reflection
There's a halo right above me

A lyrical ironist to match Warren Zevon, Holland is equally gifted with melody. Her songs are bright, energetic, and roots-based, with more rock than folk to their sound. Her jazz background adds a dash of spice to the album's arrangements, but she never goes overboard or loses sight of the listener.
Holland can move you, but she seldom pushes. "Irene," a portrait of a misguided woman (written by Holland and Jenny Yates), couldn't be more delicate, with its mandolin-tinged accompaniment and its metaphors of breezes and birds, and the diminished chords behind the chorus play out Irene's vulnerability and the singer's concern for her as strongly as the lyrics do.
Best of all, Holland has a sense of humor. "Faded Red Car," a just slightly over-the-top country waltz, uses a jalopy as a metaphor for its owner: it "has one thing you can count on/Knowing the damn thing won't start." Sedately funky, with Motown keyboards and Appalachian fiddle, "The End of the World" shows a rich matron preparing for doomsday with impeccable control ("I'll say goodbye to cousin Phyllis/Just tell the gardener he should bill us.")
Holland never wastes time. Only one track on The Book of Survival tops four and a half minutes. She makes her point and then moves on. The result is an album that demands repeated listening.
It's a delight to hear a singer who wears her mind on her sleeve, yet never intimidates her listeners. As a wordsmith, Deborah Holland concerns herself with the balance between heart and mind. As an artist, she makes the balance seem effortless.
--Pamela Murray Winters (Arlington, VA)


RADIO PLAY
Bad Girl Once... is getting played on over 80 stations so far including WBGU, WXPN, KBCS, WRKF, WYSO, WLRN, WYEP, WTSR, WMUC, WFMT, KZSC, WRKF, WRPI, WFDU, KBCS, KPSU, WXOU, KLCC, WJFF. CKCU, WHUS, KUT, CJTR, WSLU, WEVL, WDBX, WGDR, KTEP, CFMU, KOPN, WTJU, WAPS, WTBQ, KVMR, KPFT, KWGS, WRUR, KFAI, WETA, KOTO, KUMD, as well as Internet stations and stations in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Holland, new Zealand.


NEW RECORD LABEL
Bad Girl Once... is the first release from the newly-formed independent label, RageOn Records. The album's roster of Deborah-penned songs is rounded out by two covers, Beach Boys classic "Sloop John B" and Stephen Foster's "Hard Times (Come Again No More)," traditional songs which are re-charged here by Deborah's loop-sample arrangements. Additionally, the track "On My Way" was co-written with Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Wendy Waldman.