British rocker Holly Golightly digs roots in rural Georgia

Now Golightly is a Georgian. She moved into her rural North Georgia abode about a half-hour from Athens a couple of weeks before heading out on a month-long tour that ends here at the EARL on Thursday.

After starting her career with all-girl garage band Thee Headcoatees in 1991, Golightly went solo in 1995. She has a complex discography, but she's probably nearing 20 albums with this year's Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs album "Dirt Don't Hurt." In this latest work, her primitive rock aesthetic has become even grittier, coming across like a mix of old acoustic country blues, early R&B, pre-British Invasion rock and rustic folk.

We caught up with Golightly as she and Brokeoffs partner Lawyer Dave were getting an oil change in Tucson, Ariz., last week. Here's an edited transcript of the conversation.

Q: What prompted you to move to this side of the Atlantic?

A: I've lived here [in the U.S.] on and off for about 15 years, coming and going. I was renting places or sharing places.

A very good girlfriend of mine moved just outside of Athens. Just before [Hurricane] Katrina, she had to flee New Orleans. We'd been staying with them on and off. Dave had been staying there pretty much since December last year, scoping it out and seeing if it was somewhere we could function from. We looked at the options, but really, Georgia fit every criteria we had to meet. It's got the international airport, it's got good road access to everywhere else.

Q: Any other reason?

A: Well, it's beautiful. Why not? It's one of the most beautiful places in the country that I've been. I've known people there for years and years, so I've been visiting the Atlanta area for a long time. It's sort of familiar enough for me, geographically and topographically. I love the sunshine, but I like green. Dave's from Texas and that's just a bit too brown for me.

Q: You haven't been able to spend much time at the new house yet, have you?

A: No, not at all. It was August by the time the sale completed. Dave had been staying there for about a month before I arrived. Then we were there about two weeks before we took off on tour.

Q: So still living out of boxes?

A: Well, they won't arrive until New Year. We actually had to have contractors in. There was termite damage and we needed stuff done, so it was just as well we were off on tour. And we didn't have any water, either, because the well had dried up and we needed to get another one dug. The first one we dug didn't find water, so we had to get another one dug. It remains to be seen whether it's any good or not.

Q: Have you met the neighbors?

A: Oh, yes, they're amazing. They've been really lovely. They've welcomed us. It's weird enough that Dave's from Texas, but to have somebody come in from the other side of the world is just blowing their mind. It's weird that anybody would move to this tiny little town from out of state, let alone out of the country.

We have the local guy who knows everything — the oracle, we call him — he comes over and tells us what's what. He's the only hope we've got of knowing anything about [our property], because nobody left us any instructions. We're just finding out as we go along.

Q: There's lot of the South in your music. What drew you to the music that influenced you?

A: When I started buying music, I was into punk rock and some punk bands were doing old soul covers. I'd go find the original and find out it was a gospel song. I started collecting soul singles about the same time. I just went backwards instead of forwards. The essence of the thing that I like certainly did spring from the South, for sure. I sort of stopped being interested in contemporary music after about 1965. I'm in my own bubble. But I love that I'm there. It's an obvious place for me to end up, really.