Scott Holt Band

Scott Holt puts emphasis on message, not genre, in his music
Friday, May 14, 2010
By Katherine Kipp ~ Southeast Missourian

Scott Holt believes in the ability of music to transcend every border -- physical and cultural.

"You can play music, and people from different countries and languages can appreciate it and understand it," he said.

The Nashville-based musician will bring the Scott Holt Band to Southeast Missouri for a show at 8 p.m. Saturday at Stooges.

Holt grew up around music. The first time he expressed interest in learning guitar at age 12, his parents enrolled him in piano lessons after getting advice that instrument should be learned first. He quit piano after six months.

At age 19, he decided to finally try his hand at guitar. Soon, he found himself practicing around eight hours every day. During that first year, he met and received a short lesson from blues legend Buddy Guy.

At age 20, he was asked to join Guy's band. Holt played with the band for 10 years.
"That was my education," Holt said. "Everything I learned about performing and being an entertainer and a guitar player, I learned on the stage with Buddy Guy."

Now Holt leads his own band, which is made up of Holt, lead guitar and vocals; Dan Eubanks, bass guitar and background vocals; Marshal Weaver, drums; and Douglas "Truth" Smith, keyboard. Smith records with the band, but does not tour.

Holt said he and Guy keep in touch and try to play together when they can. Though both musicians fall into the blues category, Holt said he does not like to be stuffed into a specific genre.

"I write music," Holt said. "I don't like to depend on a genre, because then you're going to have people that won't want to hear it because they don't like that type of music." Holt said he believes there's good in every genre. In his own music, instead of relying on a style, he relies on the message he wants to get across.

"I like to tell stories in my music," Holt said. "Everything we've written tells a story. I try to write about things that are relevant or people can relate to. You want to write about things people can understand."

Although Holt has lived in the South for most of his life, he said location, boundaries or nationality don't stand in the way of getting a message across to all walks of life.
"I've been in non-English-speaking countries performing, and even there they sing along to the lyrics," Holt said. "That was the most profound discovery and still continues to thrill me. In England, Paris, Tokyo -- they all had the same cares and concerns I have. [Seeing this] gave me a broader understanding of how small we all are."

Holt's goal is to spread a positive energy with his music, believing if people can get along in a situation like a concert, they should be able to take that outside and spread it everywhere.

"We have to remind people love and harmony really do exist," Holt said.
That message is evident in The Scott Holt Band's upcoming seventh album, "Kudzu," which is set for release at the end of June or early July.

While Holt said he enjoys being on the road and the experiences he gains from performing, such as performing once with Eric Clapton while touring with Guy, Holt always enjoys returning home to his 10-year-old daughter, Olivia, and wife of 19 years, Buffy.

"The only place that really feels like home is Tennessee," Holt said. - Katherine Kipp - Southeast Missourian - May 14th, 2010

Genre: Soul/rock/pop

Label: Gracetone

Produced by: Scott Holt

Personnel: Scott Holt (vocals, guitar), Doug “Truth” Smith (keyboards),
Dan Eubanks (bass), Marshall Weaver (drums). Kendra Glenn (backing
vocals), Dawn L. McArthur (backing vocals)

Anyone whose day job for 10 years was playing second guitar in blues icon
and six-string axe master Buddy Guy's band has to have good ears and a
serious depth of feeling for that music (even if he comes from Tennessee).
Anyone who can smoke the master on ride after ride, night after night, has
to have some serious guitar chops. Scott Holt, who electrified the Bayfront
Blues Festival audience with his performance a month ago, possesses all
the above and has done all the above. He also has a brand new CD
release called “Kudzu.”

Though he obviously has stone-cold blues cred, Holt makes it clear on this
new project that playing blistering blues guitar is not the total picture of his
artistic creativity. That is simply one color, one hue, in his ever-morphing
rainbow of sound, and it doesn't dominate.

Through the course of “Kudzu,” Holt proves he is also a very soulful singer,
a songwriter with depth and wit, and an arranger who has the taste and the
restraint to let the music breathe and not force blast-furnace blues guitar
into every nook and cranny of every tune. Unlike a litany of blues artists,
Holt's lyrics aren't just scaffolding around his guitar rides.

If you've lived much of your life in and around Nashville, it would be hard to
avoid some of today's alt-country influence.

“Girl From '84” has a kind of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits intro and
recurring guitar lick, while the vocals have a south Jersey shore soul vibe
reminiscent of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. The text is about
reclaiming an earlier infatuation that's been lost over time.

“Wicked Grip” is the murky tale of letting one head win the battle over the
other. It has that creepy Bryan Ferry kind of slow burn.

“S & M” has some bark and dirt on it, and here the title stands for what
makes the world go round: “sex and money.” It also stands for “save me,”
and has Holt's snaky lines weaving in and out of the Soul Sista's smooth
background vocals.

“That Girl” (the only track not written or co-written by Holt) has that blues
snap and lets Holt cut loose on his battered Strat with a thick and creamy
tone skating all over the chicken grease that the rhythm section lays down.

The title track has a lovely little 50-second prelude that is pure Curtis
Mayfield, with Mayfield's thin plaintive guitar and vocal style. The band then
kicks in under lyrics about people trying to get by day to day; looking for
freedom and happiness; and how we are really all the same. It is an
uplifting closer on a diverse and eclectic new release - Duluth News Tribune - John Zeigler - September 9th, 2010

John Ziegler, Published August 15 2010
Review: Holt comes out of background to burn up bluesfest stage
?
Scott Holt performs on the main stage during the Bayfront Blues Festival in Duluth on Saturday. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)

I remember hearing blues legend Buddy Guy and his band at one of the very first Bayfront Blues Festivals. My lasting impression was, “Buddy was cool, but who was the kid playing second guitar in his band who blew Buddy away on every solo?”

I remember asking everyone backstage, but the closest answer was “he’s just some kid from Nashville.” I thought I’d probably never hear or see him again. One of those brilliant talents that comes and then goes, like a shooting star, without a trace.

Almost ten years later Buddy played bluesfest again with some of the very same band members, and I had the exact same experience. Same young axe-slinger, still playing scorching rides, but this time I found out the cat’s name: Scott Holt. I remember thinking this is someone to make a point to listen for.

Well, Saturday afternoon, Scott Holt played bluesfest for the third time, now (sans Guy) under his own name. He still plays stunning guitar, has a good band of his own, writes interesting material and sings with some soul in his throat.

On my first witness to his guitar prowess, Holt looked like he was skipping his fourth-grade gym class to make the gig. Today, with shaved head, combat boots, earrings, black jeans and cowboy shirt, and tattoos on his forearms, he wouldn’t look out of place at some German heavy rock fest. But looks (as I learned the night prior with Sonny Landreth) aren’t the issue; talent is, and Holt has that to burn.

His beat up Strat (given to him by Buddy Guy and signed on the back of the headstock by Eric Clapton) was snarling even before the emcee had finished his introduction. Ripping into the blues chestnut “Messin’ with the Kid” (written by Guy’s former partner Junior Wells), Holt showed he has massive chops. He simply cut loose right from the opening bars, letting everyone know he was taking the stage like a Marine battalion commandeering a hill. He paced the stage from side to side like a caged cheetah, stalking the crowd and making jokes about a few of the seat markers. At one point, he purposely ran from a photographer’s lens, making a game out of getting his picture, all the while playing a ferocious solo.

“I Just Wanna Make Love to You” (the Willie Dixon gem) let Holt dig in with his mammoth tone and issue forth another “take no prisoners” solo. You could hear the string windings whistle and whine as Holt mercilessly tore up nearly every tune in the set with one searing ride after another.

Holt didn’t play with Buddy Guy for 10 years and not learn a few of the master’s tricks about interacting with the audience. Getting the crowd to sing along and then admonishing one particular crowd member for singing out of tune is straight from the Guy play book on how to be an entertainer, as well as a first-class musician.

Holt’s band was top shelf with “Lightning” Joe Peterson sharing some of the rides on piano and B-3, Marshall “The Engine” Weaver on drums and Dan T. Eubanks (looking like a forgotten member of Molly Hatchet) on bass. They worked together seamlessly, and genuinely were having fun on this sun-splashed Saturday afternoon.

“Outlines” was a Holt original and showcased the rasp in his voice over the virtuosity in his guitar playing. It dealt with a chalk outline on the floor, guns, evening up the score, and prison bars.

“That Girl” let Holt venture out into the crowd (another Guy trademark), even running up the grassy knoll at the farthest reaches of the festival grounds. He took off his guitar at one point and set it in the lap of a woman who then played the most amazing atonal, distorted, banshee solo ever heard. The crowd ate it up. Holt then elbowed his way through the thick of the audience back to the stage, finally leaping from one piece of audio equipment to another, all the while screaming through his amp like his guitar was on fire.

He closed his set with “the first song I ever learned on guitar,” Jimi Hendrix’s “VooDoo Chile.” Suffice it to say that Holt has the Hendrix spirit in huge quantity. He surprisingly segued into Robert Johnson’ “Hellhound On My Trail,” which gave way to an thwacky drum solo, which melded into “America The Beautiful,” that turned into “Over the Rainbow.”

It was a tour de force conclusion to a red hot set that left cinders on the stage right in front of where Holt’s O’Brien amp had been sitting. Scott Holt is the real deal. Don’t forget his name.

John Ziegler reviews concerts for the News Tribune. - Duluth News Tribune - John Zeigler - August 15th, 2010