| Tennessee born bluesman ready to electrify |
|
By: ERIN EDGEMON, Business Editor
|
Posted: Sunday, September 7, 2008 8:17 am
|
 Email  Print
|
Scott Holt
|
|
|
For Scott Holt there is nothing like performing for a live audience.
“You can compare it to anything, a rollercoaster or sex,” he said in a telephone interview from his Columbia home. “It is all of those things. It is hanging by the seat of your pants.”
The blues guitarist has being touring the country for nearly 20 years, mostly notably for 10 years with the legendary Buddy Guy.
“My first teacher was Buddy Guy so everything I do is steeped in that,” Holt said.
He met the musician at the age of 21 after a performance in Tampa, Fla. His father, who Holt calls a “brilliant salesman,” arranged the meeting.
For reasons unknown to Holt, Guy took an instant liking to him. He soon invited Holt to join his band.
Guy now holds a spot close to his heart like an older family member.
“We had a real friendship,” Holt said. “I learned so much from him.”
He left Guy’s band in 2000 and began touring with the Scott Holt Band. He now plays about 200 shows a year.
“We do as many as we can,” he said. “In this business, you don’t get paid unless you play.”
The Scott Holt Band is slated to play Murfreesboro Sept. 13 at 9 p.m. as the headliner of the third annual Boro Blues Fest at Patterson Park Community Center.
Holt doesn’t get to perform near his hometown very often but when he does all of his family and friends come out to see him.
The musician said to expect the unexpected at the Murfreesboro show.
“We are gonna play as hard as we possibly can and try to entertain the people,” Holt said. “You will know who we are when we leave.”
He doesn’t come up with a set list before his shows so he isn’t sure what songs his band will perform.
“I literally don’t know what we are going to play until the second I start playing,” Holt said.
Safe bets though are Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child,” the first song he learned to play on the guitar; “Dark Side of the Night,” from his album of the same name; and tracks from his latest album “From Lettsworth to Legend,” a tribute to Buddy Guy.
Surprisingly, Holt didn’t pick up the guitar until the age of 19.
Something told him to get a Jimi Hendrix cassette. He had heard of the musician but had never heard any of his music.
When he heard the first chords of Hendrix’s Fender Stratocaster, Holt said, “It was like the color came on.”
He knew he had to be guitarist.
Now he lives for the adrenaline rush of performing.
Holt spoke about being in the moment on stage and opening up a “channel.
“For musicians, that is what keeps you digging — when you are playing at the edge of your ability, and you realize that you are not really concentrating,” he said. “I think it is the same kind of mindset that athletes have. When it is really flowing, they are not really thinking about it.
“The best stuff is the stuff that comes out spontaneously,” Holt said.
And even though he hasn’t reached the level of stardom that many artists crave, Holt said he feels lucky to be able to do what he loves for a living.
“I really don’t have any choice,” he said of performing. “I can’t imagine doing anything else. There is nothing I have this amount of passion for.
“The creative drug that is kicking off in your brain when you are making music and entertaining people, there is nothing like it,” he said.
Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.
The Scott Holt Band is slated to perform Sept. 13 at 9 p.m. at the third annual Boro Blues Fest at Patterson Park Community Center.
On the Web: www.scottholt.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
Login and voice your opinion!
|
Digg
Facebook
MySpace
Yahoo!