Amissville

Meredith Laney - sass and vocals
David Holtzclaw - backtalk, vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and djembe

Carl Jung said "Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." Meredith and David have thoughtful songs that look at both realms, with passion and clarity. Their music shows their folk roots, but they aren’t ashamed to take their rich harmonies and memorable songs into rock and blues territory. It’s like Mindy Smith met David Crosby and had a baby with … oh never mind, you get the idea.

They met at a Darrell Scott show in 2005. Each had their own music career, Dave on his own and with several bands (Brothers, Wooden Parts and others). He sold a Nolan Ryan rookie baseball card to buy his first serious acoustic guitar. It opened up a whole new world of songwriting for him. Meredith sang in ensembles and choirs, writing her own songs but describing herself as a sofa singer-songwriter. The first time she sang for Dave, “I lit a candle, turned out the lights and made him look anywhere but at me. Now, he would have you know, you can’t shut me up.”

Their influences include David Wilcox and Eva Cassidy and you can certainly hear that and more from their blues and folk-rock songs to the thoughtful folk ballads they write and perform. Their album, Take Me Back, is out now, made possible with a 2010 Regional Artist Project Grant from their local arts council (www.artsandscience.org). They were one of only twenty recipients out of sixty-seven applicants.

Meredith is also a published poet and photographer. She’s the mother of a witty 13-year-old daughter who is comfortably settled in the please-don’t-talk-to-me-in-public-where-my-friends-can-see stage. David also has a background in photography; when he’s not doing his day job in the audio-visual field, he’s searching for the perfect pint.

They’ve toured all over the Carolinas, opening for the John Cowan Band and Ellis Paul, as well as doing their own shows. They’ve performed twice at Festival in the Park in Charlotte and at a showcase sponsored by the Charlotte Folk Society. Before their career together, Dave shared the stage with Lucy Kaplansky, Tim O’Brien, Ralph Stanley and many more.

They’ll be touring more in the coming years as well as exploring licensing their music for film and TV. Meredith sums it up well: “We hope to touch more people with our music than we ever thought possible. We write for us, but we play for them.”