About Claire Holley
Claire Chamblin Holley, a native of Mississippi, was exposed from an early age to the southland's rich variety of musical influences, and from an early age she responded. She took a ukulele to church and sat out in the hot car strumming it between Sunday school and the church service. She ruined her father's classical guitar by replacing the nylon strings with steel strings so she could imitate what she'd been hearing on her favorite record Chet Atkins and Merle Travis Traveling Show.
"Between all my father's records and my mother's collection of musical instruments, there was plenty to learn from. When we listened to music, my father and I would pretend to conduct the orchestra in front of us. I remember my mother showing me how to play the autoharp, and I still have a wooden music box that she played for me when I was a girl. Now I play it for my son sometimes when he goes to sleep; it's a beautiful, melancholy tune." Her grandmother was an accomplished jazz pianist and made sure that Claire took piano lessons for seven years, though it was playing guitar that really interested her. "I was never that good at playing piano, and maybe that's because I didn't practice enough, but I found the guitar fun to play. It wasn't a chore to practice."
She moved to Chicago for college and began performing at coffeehouses and writing songs. At the suggestion of one of her professors, she studied the poems of William Blake and set one of them to music. That, along with two songs she wrote for the college arts CD, Kodon, set a nice foundation for recording songs for Night Air, her first independent release. She moved to North Carolina, where she collaborated with producer John Plymale on the 1999 release, Sanctuary, a visionary collection of traditional hymns and gospel songs which struck a chord with many radio listeners: "Every time we play 'Bounty of the Lord' or 'Come Thou Fount' the phones ring and ring." (Keith Weston, WUNC Chapel Hill, NC). She signed with Yep Roc Records soonafter and her self-titled release from the label was featured on NPR's Weekend Edition with Liane Hansen. Performing Songwriter calls her work on this record, "straightforward, unabashed, and beautiful."
Since then, Claire has established a significant presence as a singer and a songwriter. "…She is graced with a fine voice," says Dirty Linen "but more than that, she has learned how to use it expressively." Of her latest release, Dandelion, also on Yep Roc Records, Claire "displays the instincts of a master short-story writer, crafting vivid, folkie vignettes of everyday folks, eccentric and otherwise." (Harp). "Simulaneously sweet and gruff, she can sing luxuriant, summer-drenched ballads with the best of them, but there's something of the honky-tonker lurking underneath." (Paste Magazine)
These songs and performances display Claire's commitment to staking out new musical ground while still remaining true to her southern song-writing roots. She continues to tour nationally and is currently working on new material, including a song for a compilation benefiting cystic fibrosis. Last year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art used two of her arrangements of seasonal songs for one of their music releases. Claire lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Chad, and son, Jack.
For more info on Claire Holley, please contact Yep Roc Records.