Twelve years after their 2014 formation, and with several lineup changes, The Southern Fold remain the foremost Irish band in the Gothic/alt-country genre. Fronted by Emlyn Holden, their recently released album, BENEATH THE BLAZE OF THE BURNING SUN, is a marriage of country-style harmonies, droning guitars and ghostly rhythms set to a soundtrack of country, soul and blues that capture the energy of their live shows. ‘’That's the wonderful thing about all the musicians I'm playing with at the moment…..They always add something really good, and they can carry it well,’’ Holden spells out in a recent chat with Lonesome Highway
You are signed to Juke Joint 500 in Germany, a label that is well suited to your Gothic country sound. How did that come about?
Yes, Reinhard Holstein’s label. We put out an EP called FIVE LIVE a couple of years ago. It was a live recording we made in Kilkenny at Cleere’s during a gig. We just figured we'd have that to sell at gigs as a promotional tool or whatever. Reinhard must have heard it somewhere, and he emailed me and asked me, "Would I be interested in him printing that on vinyl?" We were delighted, so we put a couple of extra tracks on the vinyl version to make it more substantial, and it just continued from there. So, it looks like we're going to put out the new album on vinyl with him as well.
Has that connection opened doors for you in Germany?
I'm sure it hasn't hurt, but I think probably playing the Static Roots Festival over the past two years has helped. Playing live in Germany has given us more of an audience than anything, but now that we're putting out the album with him, I'm hoping it will open more doors with promoters and booking agents over there as well.
What was your initial vision for The Southern Fold, and has that changed over the years?
Yeah, it evolved, and it did evolve pretty quickly. I remember when I started this band, and I recorded a few demos myself at home, and at the time on ReverbNation. That was one of the big things then. I know it's still there, but it's probably not as big as it used to be. At the time, I was listening to a lot of stuff like the Byrds and the kind of late '60s Southern California sound. There was a band on Sub Pop at the time, called Beechwood Sparks, and that was the kind of sound I had in my head that I wanted, a pretty groovy sound where the vocals are mellow. So, the first few demos were very much on that kind of mellow sound with a lot of slide guitar. But you just can't knock the rock and roller out of me, and it just evolved into something a little bit spikier pretty quickly with the country blues, which is probably my number one love anyway.
When did that evolve into having a female vocalist working with you?
A girl called Marie Glynn was the first girl that I came to sing with. We worked as a duo, and that brought in the chance to do a Gram Parsons-type sound with the Emmylou close harmonies. So, it started as one thing, then quickly hopped onto other things and kept going from there. I've always been a big fan of bands like the Louvin Brothers, and you know that kind of blood harmony stuff. From there, I was asked to join another band, and this girl Marie was in the band. That band didn't go anywhere and fell apart, and I just said to her, “I've been invited to play at a Kurt Cobain tribute down in Cleere’s, and would you sing with me at it?” I was never very confident about singing myself, but when you're a songwriter, you have no choice. If you want the songs to be heard, you have to get out and sing them. So, she sang with me, and I had some songs, and so we took it from there. That was the start of The Southern Fold; by chance, it worked out, and that laid the groundwork. It was always going to be male-female harmonies; that was the sound.
The current lineup, along with you, is Brian McGrath on bass, Stephen Doohan on guitar, drummer Dara Doyle, and Madeline Leclezio on vocals. Is that the longest stable band lineup?
Yes, but except for Dara, our new drummer, it's been that lineup since 2024. We played a gig in Ryan's during Kilkenny Roots weekend. We had Gregor Beresford on drums at the time, but he went back to Canada, so we had Cillian Galloway on drums for a while. I'd always wanted to play with Stephen because he was in the band Blackbird and Crow, and we played together a few times. I mentioned to Stephen that we needed to find a good female vocalist, and he said he thought he knew just the person, and that was Madeline.
Her vocals work in perfect harmony with your own. Was what you were doing musically very new to her?
I would imagine so, but she knows her stuff. She knows all different kinds of music. From what I've gathered, she didn't know much about our sound before she joined the band, but when she hears me talk about different bands, she'll go and check them out. So, for someone who wasn't all that well schooled in this type of music, she managed to fit into it very well.
Do you get much opportunity to rehearse as a full band?
Madeline, Dara, and Stephen are all in Dublin, Brian and I are in Kilkenny. We’d love to rehearse a few times a week and kick around new songs and all that, but logistically it really doesn't work out like that. So, when a gig is coming up, we'll get together for a few weeks, and luckily, even if we haven't played together for a few months, it all just clicks back into place when we get back together. It's great, they're super committed and super musicians.
Do you have the songs written and a melody in mind when you bring the songs to rehearse and record?
Yeah, I write the songs here at home; I'll have the words and music. I'll also have a few ideas of how I like the arrangement to go, and then I like to let everybody do their own thing. I'll give everybody an idea of how I'd like it to be. That's the wonderful thing about all the musicians I'm playing with at the moment. You can trust them; they won't mess it up. They always add something really good, and they can carry it well.
Where did the songs come from for the new album, BENEATH THE BLAZE OF THE BURNING SUN?
This album was strange because of how it started. Some of the songs were written during COVID, which was a bit after we put out our album BIBLE FEAR, just in time for the pandemic. Like all the other musicians, there wasn't much to do during that time, so I was writing songs. I was listening to some of the folk stuff going around in Ireland then, like Lankum and Junior Brother, and I figured I’d write folk songs because it's just me and acoustic guitar. I was working on putting a batch of songs together to put it up on Bandcamp, not as The Southern Fold.
That obviously did not happen.
No, after COVID, I had those songs kicking around that I'd recorded. I had bought a lot of mics and good software to record at home, so it was pretty good quality, and I had the bare bones of the songs recorded. I met Brian (McGrath) a few times, and he was all for putting the band back together again; Gregor (Beresford) was around, and before I knew it, we were in a local studio, and Brian and Gregor were laying their parts down on the songs I'd recorded. When everyone laid their parts down, they jumped from an Emlyn Holden solo folk album into a brand-new Southern Fold album.
What were the first and the last song that you wrote for the album?
Most of the songs were written during COVID, maybe 2021 to 2023, but there are a couple of even older ones on it. My Open Mind is an old song I wrote about 20 years ago. It's always stuck with me, but I never had an album that would suit it before. I wrote One More Time about 15 years ago. I was trying to write a Western swing ballad, and that's what I came up with. And there were just a couple of songs that I always kept and waited for the right time. The last song written for the album, the closing track on the album, was A Whispered Name in the Wind.
Two tracks, My Open Mind and The Sacred and Saving Light, run over eight minutes long. Were they always intended to develop into jam-type inclusions?
Yeah, I wanted them to be jam songs; they naturally just became that length in the studio. I've always been a fan of the late '60s scene, and a lot of those bands were jam bands. With bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, you'll always find a long song, or maybe two, on their albums, and I always liked that. So, the idea of having a song that's eight or nine minutes was never alien to me. It's fine by me.
Other shorter tracks like Before The Fall and Nothing To Fear sound perfectly radio friendly.
Before The Fall was released a couple of years ago; we put it out as a single, but we didn't have much muscle behind it. We have had a lot of airplay for our latest single, Love Song for the Damned, on Radio One and across the country. So, I’m thinking we might re-release Before The Fall and possibly Nothing To Fear as singles in the future.
You had your album launch show recently in Cleere’s, Kilkenny.
Yes. We had a good turnout, and the band was playing really well. It was perfect. Lots of people came and bought the album and T-shirts. A couple of relatives surprised me by coming all the way from Boston to see us, which was really crazy. Yeah, so it was a good celebration all round.
Do you have long-term plans for the band going forward?
I would do anything that would come my way; I would never shy away. My ambition in life is to make it financially rewarding enough that you don't need a day job. Not that you want to be a millionaire or anything. Being a full-time musician, that would be your dream come true. But as it is, we're just going to take it as it comes, keep plugging away and try to get some more songs on the radio.
Interview by Declan Culliton