Dead Fingers

Prior to Dead Fingers, Hollingsworth, a member of Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, was responsible for “Snake Hill” and “Air Mattress” on the album Outer South and also appeared on Oberst’s self-titled album. This husband-and-wife duo recorded their self-titled debut with Bruce Watson (R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Iggy and the Stooges) and it was released on Big Legal Mess/ Fat Possum Records. The track “Closet Full of Bones” is reminiscent of The Civil Wars, and the tracks “Ring Around Saturn” and “Hold on To” will bring to mind the collaboration between John Prine and Iris Dement. - Paste

Dead Fingers by Dead Fingers

(Big Legal Mess Records, 2012)

Married couple Taylor Hollingsworth and Kate Taylor combine indie-band backgrounds with the folk, Americana, and blues traditions of their native Alabama in the eponymous debut of their joint effort, Dead Fingers. The album features lush instrumentation (blues guitar! harmonica!) behind pretty harmonic duets and alternating solos. Husband and wife each play guitar and sing, forging a more collaborative air than that of, say, She & Him. The melodies and lyrics aren’t surprising, but the beauty and emotion they carry certainly are.
While Hollingsworth’s voice is pinched, at times straining, with a peculiar, hyper-articulation (perhaps a tic from his Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band days?), Taylor’s vocals are clear and delicate, almost fragile in contrast. Her voice is almost identical to that of her sister Maria of another Saddle Creek group, Azure Ray. Is that a frog in Hollingsworth’s throat? No, he probably just needs a drink of water. The blend works well in harmony, but the more successful numbers spotlight Taylor, allowing her vocals more space.

“Another Planet” is the standout track best exemplifying the couple’s pleasing vocal variance. The melody is sunny, the guitar jangly and dreamy, like a cowboy in love. But the quick tempo and happy riff don’t obscure the song’s lyrical message: It’s lonely when your other half is away for months (presumably on tour). The emotions of missing someone are realistic and straightforward—“Talk all day, it's not the same as to feel you”—and we believe them when they say, “I’ll be down to wait around forever.”

The middle of the record marks a slight detour from this romantic unity, featuring Hollingsworth and Taylor individually. Left to her own devices, Taylor sings about a cheating man in “Please Don’t Let Me Go,” a track slow in tempo and heavy with violins: “He knew it wasn’t right/When he didn’t come home last night.” Hollingsworth takes his solo turn on the next track, “Against the River,” with a piano-heavy blues romp. The songs are not unsuccessful, incongruous as they are with the rest of the album.

Lest these disparate tracks betray unrest in the (confusingly named) Taylor/Taylor household, “On My Way” brings the duo back together, carving a sweet passage through the remaining ditties and jams. Much of the album recalls the collaborative work of John Prine and Iris deMent, and the couple will do well to remember: Complement, don’t compete.

Our favorite lyric: “I love you in your breakfast sweater/I hear you speak in all your letters” from “Another Planet.”

—AGE - Oxford American

Froggy-voiced boy meets caramel-voiced girl; their slice-of-life country feels like an Eggleston exhibit - SPIN

TThere’s something very cinematic about the sounds of Dead Fingers. At times it rings of the kind of vintage country that would be romanticized by Jim Jarmusch. At times it’s reminiscent of the effortless, alcohol-addled, late-night folk jamming of Bob Dylan and friends captured by D.A. Pennebaker in Dont Look Back. And at time it sounds like the kind of Southern Rock that those kooky kids from Dazed and Confused would shoot pool to.

Dead Fingers are real-life married couple Taylor Hollingsworth and Kate Taylor and their self-titled debut drops Tuesday (Feb. 28th) on Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum Records. The album is a mutually constructed love letter to each other… it’s certainly badass, but sentiments of sugar and spice do regularly make their way to the forefront (Imagine if the New York Dolls made an acoustic Americana record.)

Although this is Hollingsworth and Taylor’s first joint effort under the Dead Fingers moniker, you’re likely familiar with at least one of them from previous projects. Taylor Hollingsworth has a handful of solo records, along with the credit of guitar-slinger for Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band. And Kate Taylor has regularly been found backing Maria Taylor on keys, drums, and bass. - Philthy Magazine