{{short description|American singer, songwriter, and pianist}} thumb|Robin Holcomb, 2016 '''Robin Lynn Holcomb''' is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist who combines avant-garde jazz, classical music, and folk music.
The ''New York Times'' described her music as "a new American regionalism, spun from many threads – country rock, minimalism, Civil War songs, Baptist hymns, Appalachian folk tunes, even the polytonal music of Charles Ives. The music that results is as elegantly simple as a Shaker quilt, and no less beautiful."<ref name="nytimes">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/04/arts/home-entertainment-recordings-recent-releases.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |title=Home entertainment/Recordings: Recent releases |date=November 4, 1990 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> Despite her eclectic output, she has said that she doesn't try to "genre mash" intentionally "...it just kind of comes up because it's what's in the air. I am drawn repeatedly to hymn-type harmonies. I was fascinated by Civil-War songs when I was a kid. I come back to those things."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/robin-holcomb-distinctive-mysteries-robin-holcomb-by-gordon-marshall |title=Robin Holcomb: Distinctive Mysteries |first=Gordon |last=Marshall |date=February 14, 2011 |publisher=AllAboutJazz.com}}</ref> She also describes her style as "minimalism without being a minimalist...when I write poetry, I go for the fewest words that evoke a lot or let the readers connect the dots, or relate it to their own experience, and the same with music."
Holcomb began playing professionally in New York, in an avant-garde scene that involved her future husband Wayne Horvitz as well as John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, and Eugene Chadbourne. Her work during that period was recorded in the 1988 album, ''Larks, They Crazy''. Her subsequent albums focus more on songwriting.
==Discography== * ''Larks, They Crazy'' (Sound Aspects, 1989) * ''Robin Holcomb'' (Elektra, 1990) * ''Rockabye'' (Elektra, 1992) * ''Little Three'' (Nonesuch, 1996) * ''The Big Time'' (Nonesuch, 2002) * ''John Brown's Body'' (Tzadik, 2006) * ''The Point of It All'' (Songlines, 2010) * ''One Way Or Another Volume 1'' (Westerlies Records, 2022) * ''One Way Or Another Volume 2'' (Westerlies Records, 2024)
== References == {{reflist}} *{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/robin-holcomb-p2009|title=Robin Holcomb - Biography, Albums, Streaming Links - AllMusic|website=AllMusic|accessdate=4 May 2018}} *{{cite journal|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2002/07/seattle_super_sonic.html|title=Seattle Super Sonic|first=Gerald|last=Marzorati|date=17 July 2002|accessdate=4 May 2018|journal=Slate}} *{{cite web|url=http://articles.philly.com/1992-12-17/entertainment/25996062_1_songs-tin-angel-vocal-music|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141208081749/http://articles.philly.com/1992-12-17/entertainment/25996062_1_songs-tin-angel-vocal-music|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 8, 2014|title=Archives - Philly.com|website=The Philadelphia Inquirer|access-date=4 May 2018}} *{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/nov/19/jazz.johnfordham|title=McFerrin/Reeves, Royal Festival Hall, London|first=John|last=Fordham|date=19 November 2003|website=the Guardian|accessdate=4 May 2018}}
== External links == {{Commons category}} * {{official website|http://www.robinholcomb.com}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Holcomb, Robin}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:American women singer-songwriters Category:American women pianists Category:American male singer-songwriters Category:20th-century American singer-songwriters Category:20th-century American pianists Category:20th-century American women singers Category:21st-century American singer-songwriters Category:21st-century American pianists Category:21st-century American women singers Category:Nonesuch Records artists Category:Elektra Records artists Category:Tzadik Records artists