Alabama-born musician Lonnie Holley is back with a new star-studded album. Tonky, his follow-up to 2023’s Oh Me Oh My, arrives March 21 via Jagjaguwar. He’s shared the lead single from the record, “Protest With Love,” which features contributions from Jacknife Lee, the Legendary Ingramettes, Kelly Pratt, and Jordan Katz. That song comes with a music video, which you can watch below.
The 14-track Tonky is filled with guests, including Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, Armand Hammer rapper billy woods, Mary Lattimore, Alabaster dePlume, Open Mike Eagle, Angel Bat Dawid, Saul Williams, Jesca Hoop, and Joe Minter. And the new album’s title doesn’t exactly mean you should expect old-timey country music; Holley titled the record after his childhood nickname, Tonky, which was given to him when he lived in a honky-tonk for several years growing up.
Read the 5-10-15-20 interview “The Music That Made Cosmic Bluesman Lonnie Holley.”
Tonky:
01 Seeds
02 Life [ft. Mary Lattimore]
03 Protest With Love
04 The Burden (I Turned Nothing Into Something) [ft. Angel Bat Dawid]
05 The Same Stars [ft. Joe Minter and Open Mike Eagle]
06 Kings in the Jungle, Slaves in the Field
07 Strength of a Song [ft. Alabaster dePlume]
08 What’s Going On? [ft. Isaac Brock]
09 Fear the Machine
10 I Looked Over My Shoulder [ft. billy woods]
11 Did I Do Enough? [ft. Jesca Hoop]
12 That’s Not Art, That’s Not Music
13 Those Stars Are Still Shining [ft. Saul Williams]
14 A Change Is Gonna Come