Myra Holder
Four Mile Road
How did I miss this back in the day? I was a huge fan of the Athens – North Carolina – New York axis of power pop perfection. I bought pretty much everything from the dB’s, Let’s Active and R.E.M. Myra Holder was in that scene of young Southern musicians hanging out in Hoboken making sweet, melodic rock and roll.
Four Mile Road originally came out on Coyote Records in 1989. It was produced by Chris Stamey (dB’s). Myra mustered a who’s who of jangle rock to back her on the record. Mitch Easter and Faye Hunter from Let’s Active are here and so is Gene Holder of the dB’s and Yo La Tengo’s original lead guitarist, Dave Schramm.
The songs on Four Mile Road are the wistful remembrances of a New Yorker about her Carolina home. The title track is about a lonesome stretch of road where the kids would go make out and drink beer. The juvies are well represented with the blues swagger and stinging guitars on “Jellybean.” Speaking of guitar, whoever played the outro solo on “John Calvin”, killed it.
Four Mile Road is a very good, very solid album. I wish I’d hear it when it came out thirty-some years ago. I’m happy that this reissue sets that right.
