From left to right: Grant Emerson, Elizabeth Hopkins, Ian Hölljes, Mike McKee, Brittany Hölljes, Eric Hölljes
Delta Rae is a six-person southern rock group from Durham, North Carolina. The band consists of three siblings (Eric, Ian, and Brittany Hölljes), along with singer Elizabeth Hopkins, bassist Grant Emerson and percussionist Mike McKee. Their music is characterized by strong, intricate vocal harmony and driving percussion, and themes of duality (especially life facing down death) run through their work.
Discography
- Live at Lincoln Theatre (January 2012)
- Carry the Fire (June 2012)
- After It All (April 2015)
Delta Rae provide examples of the following tropes:
- Angry Mob Song: Bottom of the River alternates vocals between an angry mob apparently preparing to lynch a suspected witch and the woman herself, who does indeed seem to be a witch.
- The Anti-Nihilist: "Dance In The Graveyards" states that We All Die Someday, but it won't stop us from dancing in joy before or after we die.
- Badass Boast: The refrain of I Will Never Die.
- Bullying a Dragon: In the music video for Bottom of the River, a mob breaks into a woman's house and seems like they're going to lynch her, presumably for witchcraft. While she's dragged off in chains, she does not seem to despair for long; her bindings eventually disappear, and while we do not see what happens to her captors, when the camera returns to them they've been either struck down or have disappeared completely, leaving only their masks.
- Black Eyes of Evil: The woman's two servants in Bottom of the River.
- Burn the Witch!: The music video for Bottom of the River features a mob dragging a woman out of her house in chains with this as their presumed intent. By the end of the video, it very much seems that they were right on the money about her being a witch.
- Concept Video: Several of their videos.
- Bottom of the River: A crowd drags a woman (possibly a witch and played by Brittany) from her bed in chains. Only she and her two handymen survive.
- Dance in the Graveyard: A group of musicians in Dia De Los Muertos garb leads people to a graveyard, where the spirits of their departed loves manifest so that they can dance in the graveyard together.
- Scared: A couple (played by Elizabeth and Eric) attempt to run a con on a dangerous criminal. When things go wrong, the woman bolts, leaving the man to take the fallout.
- Lyrical Cold Open: Bottom of the River.
- Magic Music: I Will Never Die invokes this, more as it sounds like an incantation.
- Malevolent Masked Men: The mysterious kabuki-masked dudes in the video for Bottom of the River.
- Mirror Scare: Watch closely in the music video for Bottom of the River. When Brittany's character is dragged away out of her house in apparent terror, her reflection remains in the mirror, glaring balefully, and even blows out the lantern when the mob leaves the room, and when they barged in the reflection's gaze looks towards the door behind Brittany's character.
- Ms. Fanservice: It never overshadows their musical talent, but both of the women in the band are very attractive and dress accordingly.
- Noodle Incident: The story behind Fire isn't known but, from what can be gathered by the lyrics, the party being addressed did something wrong and spread rumors, the incident not being addressed outside of betrayal.
- The Oner: The music portion of the video for Bottom of the River is filmed entirely in a single shot and sung in a capella.
- One-Woman Wail: Brittany's haunting vocals on Scared evoke this.
- Performance Video: Their video for ''If I Loved You,"
- Protest Song: "Hands Dirty" is one for the #MeToo movement
. - Spell Construction: The song I Will Never Die reads like an incantation.
- Vocal Dissonance: Brittany's voice can be rather surprisingly deep, soulful, and powerful coming from such a slim and petite woman.
- We All Die Someday: The topic of "Dance In The Graveyards".
- We Used to Be Friends: Used as a lyric in their song "Fire"
