Jimmy Deveney and The Hold Fast Union bring Albuquerque’s vastness to soul music. The desert’s influence is easily felt on the band’s song “Handprints” (available for streaming on Friday, 8/18. You can pre-save the song here.) The vast expanses surrounding the city, as well as Mount Sandia’s looming omnipresence, can inspire existential thoughts. “Handprints” speculates on the nature of life, but the band’s easygoing soul keeps things from getting too deep. Take Glossary‘s zen acceptance of life and make it Stax Records, and you’ve got “Handprints.”
Deveney is probably best known for his singing, writing and playing in the Austin, TX bands Horse Opera, (2007 to 2014), which morphed into the more soulful Palomino Shakedown, (2014 to 2019). Both bands spent many years touring nationally, and playing and recording in Austin. Deveney self produced two ‘Horse Opera’ records, and several records for other Austin bands between 2010 and 2017. In January 2018, Deveney relocated from his Austin, TX home of 16 years, to his native home town of Albuquerque, NM., to be closer to his aging parents and family. He can be seen performing with his band, Jimmy Deveney & the Hold Fast Union, in and around Albuquerque. Deveney released a highly acclaimed solo album, “Lessons the Hard Way”, in November 2019. His second solo album, “Whatever gets Us through”, was released September 3rd, 2021.
Handprints is the lead single from Jimmy Deveney & the Hold Fast Union’s upcoming record High Desert Soul (available 9/29/23). “The song is an exploration of what is really important,” Deveney explained to Adobe & Teardrops. “How well do we love? How do we touch people’s lives? Just what do we want to leave our handprints on after we’re gone? We take nothing with us but the energy of our actions. It’s also a funky good time.”
Having experienced several losses in a few years’ time, including his father, Deveney found himself examining what really matters on a personal, relational, and universal scale.
“We all come from the same matter and energy created in the Big Bang. The universe is a closed system, and that matter and energy never leaves, just changes form. It may be nothing, it may be something, but if there’s a moral arc to the universe, you wanna be on the right side of it. All this wrapped up in a short, sweet, soulful groove.”
“Handprints” will be streaming everywhere on Friday, 8/18. You can pre-save it here. High Desert Soul will be available on 9/29.
Jimmy Deveney and the Hold Fast Union — Official, Twitter, Instagram