The people who Greg Holden describes in his songs are those who seem to be extremely hard-headed. They're survivors, more than anything. They've been batted around, neglected and left for dead more times than they'd like to admit, but they're still here. They're not just still here - which could perhaps only imply that they've lasted, only with a different constitution - but they've actually dug their feet in. They've battened down and they're aggressively rejecting all of the bullshit that most people are too willing to float along with.
The people that Holden works his songs around are vigilant about their strength, about how their long, hard weeks of work inform them, about how they won't be taken for granted. They are determined to tough everything out, no matter what it is that needs to be toughed out. They are scrappy. They are okay with taking what they can get, all the while knowing that they deserve more. They can feel that they deserve more and that it has nothing to do with greed or lust. They know that they are getting short-changed a little bit and this keeps them up to their necks in their struggles. They keep thrashing. They keep looking for home. They keep searching for the day when the shaking of their hands is noticeably less, when those good, deep breaths come to them much easier.