 |
|
| Holt arrives with extensive
musical background |
Kevin Delury
Entertainment Beat Writer |
Special to The Appalachian
|
David
Holt needs a break, or at least he should. For the past 30 years,
Holt has been involved in just about every form of media. From recording
albums, one of which earned him a Grammy Award in 1997, to hosting
numerous radio and television shows, to writing and publishing books
of collected folk tales, not to mention touring the world over,
Holt has been working non-stop bringing his distinct blend of storytelling
and folk music to the masses.
“I’m 55 and I’m starting to look for more down time,”
said Holt. “I don’t have enough, but I’m really getting
to the point in my life where I’d like more.”
Fresh off a tour of Switzerland, Holt will be performing at Appalachian
State University on Oct. 2.
Born in Gatesville, Texas, Holt spent his junior high years in California,
where he first was captured by folk music.
“I was playing rock and roll during most
of the 60s, but I would go down to clubs and see people like Doc
Watson. I really loved that folk music, but I wasn’t playing
it at the time.”
|
Soon after his first
exposure to folk music, Holt traveled to the mountains in a search
to learn more about the music he discovered while living in California.
“When I was 22, I started going out and
visiting old time mountain people, people who were born before the
turn of the 19th century,” said Holt. “They had these
old songs and ways of playing unusual instruments from the paper
bag to the bottle. That was fascinating to me, so I just dove into
them and got to know them and learned from them.”
One of Holt’s most well known mentors was
folk music legend Doc Watson, who Holt has gone on to perform with
and record numerous CDs with, the most recent titled “Legacy,”
a three-CD set that tells the life story of Doc Watson.
“I learned a tremendous amount from Doc,” said Holt. “Everything
from song selection to song presentation, to how to tune an instrument
better, to talking about old time mountain ways. Hearing Doc back
in the late 60s made me want to come to the mountains in the first
place.”
Aside from performances with the likes of Doc Watson, Holt has performed
in many corners of the world, doing tours for the U.S. State Department
as a musical ambassador. He has been everywhere from Nepal to Venezuela.
“It’s really fun, because normally they’re very enthusiastic
audiences and normally don’t get to see normal Americans,”
said Holt on his travels. “They usually only see the television
images of America or the movie images of America, so the third world
countries haven’t been exposed to that many average Americans.”
Along with representing blue-collar America, Holt’s music captivates
audiences outside of America.
“Our folk music is something they really respond to, and I
think the reason for that is because their folk music is very important
to them and is usually not that far from their popular music,”
said Holt. “It’s not such a distance from their traditional
music from the popular music, whereas here in America, it’s
a pretty long way from Britney Spears to Doc Watson.”
Recently though, there has been a resurgence in the popularity of
folk music thanks in part to movies like “O’ Brother Where
Art Thou?” which Holt had a brief appearance in as “the
village idiot.”
“The people who drive mass culture, meaning the radio and television,
they’re not interested in older things or traditional things,”
said Holt of folk music’s growing mainstream appeal. “But
I think anytime the American population is exposed to the music
though something like a movie, they love it, and they realize they
love it.”
David Holt will be performing Wednesday at Farthing Auditorium.
Doors open at 8 p.m., with the show beginning at 8:30 p.m. Advance
tickets can be purchased at the information desk located in Plemmons
Student Union for $8. Tickets will also be available at the door
for $12. |
|
 |
 |
