Ericson Holt Information

Though his music may be steeped in the blues, its the gray areas that fascinate Ericson Holt the most. There are very few moments in this life that are purely good or bad, Holt reflects. Theres always some kind of dichotomy going on, some kind of complication, and thats what interests me as a writer. With his captivating new album, 99 Degrees, Holt shines a light on those complications, exploring the almosts and the in-betweens, the missed chances and the could-have-beens, the close calls and the never-quites. The characters here contain multitudes, walking a fine line between hope and desperation as they navigate a world that seems perpetually stacked against them. The music is similarly rich and nuanced, drawing on everything from 70s AM rock and soulful folk to raucous boogie woogie and second line funk. Holt cut the majority of the album in just two days with an all-star band of Nashville heavyweights (many of whom he knew from his own work as a first-call session player and sideman), and the result is a collection of raw, spontaneous, organic performances that breathe life into his stories of everyday folks living on the margins ordinary men and women struggling to get by, stay in love, and find a little bit of light in the darkness. Sometimes I write deliberately, and sometimes the songs write themselves, Holt says. But ultimately, theres a part of me and my story in every one of these characters. Holts story begins in Virginia, where he inherited a passion for literature and a wide ranging musical appetite from his mother, heralded western novelist, A.H. Holt. He picked up the piano first, studying classically until rock and roll took over his life. He later added guitar to his repertoire with a little help from his cousin, Dean Musser, a gifted Travis picking style player who taught him the Nashville number system of writing out chord charts. Holt spent much of his teens and twenties playing in other peoples bands, as well as his own, while developing his voice as a writer. When I eventually moved to ...