Lonnie Holley’s Seeds: The Oral History of Oppression and How History Repeats Itself

Lonnie Holley is a 75 year old musician / performance artist / sculptor / activist from Alabama who has been on Justin Vernon’s label Jagjaguwar for a few records now. He is an artist who is a blend of a beat poet, activist and oral historian. His music is a cultural event, so I was very excited to see another record out.

The lead track Seeds lays the foundation for Holley’s new record Tonky. Naming the track Seeds sets out how this track acts as the idea, which will grow throughout the record, as well as throughout the track. Like all great lead tracks, this track teaches you how to listen to the record and experience the music. Themes and musical touches originating in this track will run throughout the record, so having a good handful of close listens to this track will set you up to enjoy the record in a new way. Musically, the backing vocals, chymes, strings and percussion remind me of Philip Glass’ Koyaanisqatsi, in that the music is not arranged in the traditional sense but provides texture and emotional connection. Seeds‘ rich textured musical landscape does not detract from Lonnie, but elevates his storytelling.

Thematically, Lonnie outlines how the seeds of hate and racism can bear the fruit of abuse and oppression. This track is an oral history of civil rights through Lonnie’s personal experiences of abuse through government systems, like schools in the south. He connects these experiences to the seeds of slavery and treating human beings like cattle. The track shows how these seeds of marginalisation, objectification and racism led to structural abuses and violence towards African-Americans. Lonnie’s perfromance acts as an oral history that forces the listener to face these truths and not turn a blind eye. Lonnie even describes this as “truth telling” at the end of the track. Moreover, the rest of the record talks about not only what evils these seeds have brought, but also how to combat seeds of hate and oppression…like in Protest With Love.

The ultimate message Lonnie has when drawing connections between slavery, civil rights and abuses he experienced in the south is that history is doomed to repeat itself if you do not allow truth telling. These truths are challenging to face and make amends for, but it is necessary. We currently live at a time where politicians are actively trying to erase the history and humanity of marginalised people. Increasingly, the history of white straight men is becoming valued over the history of marginalised communities. Lonnie’s record Tonky comes at a key time in history where his truth telling is more important than ever.

Listen to Seeds