Florry (from the album The Holey Bible

Florry (from the album The Holey Bible

Florry (from the album The Holey Bible available on Dear Life Records) (by Douglas DuPont)
Including their live album recorded in 2021, The Holey Bible is the third proper full-length release from Alternative Folk and quasi-Country Philadelphia band Florry.
 
Album opener “Drunk and High” offers an existentially expositional glimpse into friends of an individual who is always intoxicated. ‘You can take me home in my SUV, you can tuck me in, but you can’t kiss me’. “Take My Heart” is an achy-breaky ballad accentuated by weepy pedal/lap steel and slide guitar. Our narrator describes dreaming about and pining for what can only be a love lost. Violin joins the song later-in, letting listeners know that this is a seriously skilled group of musicians. Third cut “Hot Weather” is a straight-up Cow Punk Garage ripper, with cowbell serving as metronome and violin as wailing battle-cry. So far, the most explicitly Alt Rock song on the album. It sounds like somebody laced Camper Van Beethoven’s weed.
 
A lonesome harmonica kicks us off for fourth song “Cowgirl Giving”, and this is where the grown-folk cry. A serious slow-down from the immediately preceding number, this is Florry doing down-home music done-right. “Big Fall” picks up the energy. It can be interpreted as an ode to a favorite season, autumn as a state of mind, rather than just being one of the four seasons we collectively experience. An autumn packed with plans is indeed ‘a big fall’. What follows is “Big Winter” maybe the most beautiful song on The Holey Bible on account of the gut-wrenching tenderness and seemingly sparse instrumentation. Winter can certainly feel big when the seasonal affective disorder drags on past March. The nearly six-and-a-half minute song is over in a blink and demands to be run-back.
“ILYILY” is so nice they had to do the acronym twice. A no-nonsense love song that hits like it oughta.
 
Album high-point “Say It Again” sees each band-member playing their asses off, and could operate as the album’s mission statement: Florry (and all of humanity) are here for a good time, not a long one. If you’ve something to tell someone, do it, because tomorrow is promised to nobody. “Cowgirl in a Ditch” might have some double-entendre happening, or it’s explicitly about the necessity of embracing the open road as a touring musician. ‘I'm the great American highway in us all’.
 
Penultimate number “Song for My Art” sees Florry giving mandolin and back-up vocals ample space to shine. Another six-and-a-half minute song somehow elapsed entirely too soon. Closer “From Where You Are” sends us out on a high-note. Another seemingly Alt Rock movement until expectations are flipped in favor of Florry’s Alt Country sensibilities. 

The Holey Bible by Florry belongs in conversation with contemporary Alt Folk mainstays such as Big Thief, Angel Olsen, and Bright Eyes. (by Douglas DuPont)
Listen and buy the music of Florry from AMAZON
For more information, please visit the Florry website