Originally known for her work as a garage rock chanteuse within Billy Childish's circle through membership in Thee Headcoatees, Holly Golightly later shifted toward solo work. She formed Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs as a duo that drew from country, blues, and folk sources. Their initial recording, the 2007 album You Can't Buy a Gun When You're Crying, paired Golightly with her partner Lawyer Dave and produced a ragged yet full-bodied sound that soon became her main focus, as heard on later releases such as Sunday Run Me Over, All Her Fault, and Coulda Shoulda Woulda, each showcasing her distinctive take on Americana.
Born Holly Golightly Smith in London on September 7, 1966, she received an early opportunity when her boyfriend at the time, Bruce Brand, played drums in Thee Headcoats. Childish sought to refresh the female vocal group the Delmonas, and Brand recommended Golightly; she succeeded in joining the rebranded Thee Headcoatees, appearing on six of their albums from 1991 through 1999. Her own debut, The Good Things, arrived in 1995, after which she continued performing following the group's dissolution, issuing more than a dozen solo albums and adding guest vocals to the White Stripes' Elephant in 2003.
During the mid-2000s she began working with multi-instrumentalist Dave Drake, who performed as Lawyer Dave to accommodate his regular employment, and the pair also became romantically involved. As Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs the duo retained the raw texture of her previous solo material while emphasizing American roots, an emphasis that deepened once they moved to the United States and settled in Georgia. Their first album appeared in 2007 under the title You Can't Buy a Gun When You're Crying; from that point the project dominated her output, yielding eight further records through 2015's Coulda Shoulda Woulda, among them 2007's Nobody Will Be There, 2008's Dirt Don't Hurt, 2012's Sunday Run Me Over, and 2014's All Her Fault. Although she traveled back to the U.K. to make the 2015 solo album Slowtown Now!, she rejoined the Brokeoffs for 2018's Clippety Clop, a set of folk material shaped by her parallel work as a horse trainer.
