Product Description
TONY HOLIDAY - KEEP YPUR HEAD UP
COMING APRIL 18, 2025, RESERVE YOUR COPY TODAY!
Tony Holiday has been at the center of a Memphis soul blues revival anchored by a contingent of young, savvy, well-schooled musicians who have a "family-like" attitude and a strong belief in one another. Over the past couple of years, Holiday and his talented young band have been touring hard, taking spells in between to write and record with Producer Eric Corne in Memphis and Los Angeles. The result is Keep Your Head Up, an album that covers a tremendous amount of territory over eight pithy tracks. It features a nice array of special guests including Eddie 9V, Kevin Burt, Albert Castiglia and Laura Chavez, last year's Blues Music Award winner for 'Guitarist of the Year'. Throughout the record Holiday demonstrates an impressive command of styles, moving fluidly through Texas, Chicago and hill country Blues with plenty of Memphis soul and even a touch of Afrobeat. He also shows why he's one of the finest harmonica players on the scene today, despite electing not to play the instrument on over half the songs on the album. There's something in the water in Memphis, and Tony Holiday has tapped into it to contribute to an exciting new chapter unfolding in this storied region.
- 1 She's a Burglar
- 2 Twist My Fate
- 3 Woman Named Trouble
- 4 Good Times
- 5 Shoulda Known Better
- 6 Walk on the Water
- 7 Drive It Home
- 8 I Can Not Feel the Rain
TONY HOLIDAY
Keep Your Head Up
Forty Below Records
I hadn’t heard of Tony Holiday. But I know the town where he works and the company he keeps. The town is Memphis, and his A-list collaborators include Rush, Musselwhite, Castiglia, Bell, Wainwright, Chavez, and several other seasoned blues practitioners.
Widely celebrated now as a harmonica player and band leader, the ex-guitarist and Salt Lake City transplant has called Memphis home since 2017. On this presentation, the harmonica takes a back seat to Holiday’s songwriting and singing. His harp makes solo appearances on just three cuts.
The eight songs on his seventh release are all written by Holiday. But the total time is barely 29 minutes! Considering the veteran crowd Holiday hangs out with now, there must be hundreds of songs he could have included for (perhaps) a small licensing fee. After all, a standard CD holds 80 minutes. Given his workplace, Holiday must be familiar with playing three-to-four-hour sets. If he played this album in its entirety at a club, it would be over before you finished your first drink!
That said, if you are a fan of Holiday, you’ll probably be happy having this CD and willing to part with $15 or $20 bucks to own it. Delivering clever lyrics, a variety of sub-blues genres, and performed by tight, talented musicians, these songs are engaging from the start. A total of 20 well-oiled musicians contributed, including four drummers, three bass thumpers, three background vocalists, and guests Kevin Burt, Laura Chavez, and Albert Castiglia.
The set opens with a rave-up “She’s A Burglar” with Eddie 9V providing guitar pyrotechnics to the familiar theme of a woman stealing a man’s heart. On “Twist My Fate,” about a relationship that may or may not be over, Burt handles lead vocals and Holiday takes the harmonica solos.
The two other featured guests, guitarists Chavez and Castiglia bring standout performances to “Shoulda Known Better” and “Drive It Home,” respectively. The former is a rocker about hooking up with the wrong person and learning from the experience. Sasha Smith’s keyboards and lots of horns help Chavez propel the tune.
Castiglia’s syncopated then ripping guitar pushes Holiday’s whimsical lyrics along on a song about, well, getting it on. After a few barely-hinted innuendoes, the final verse gets directly to the point: “Put your hips next to mine… and drive it home.”
There’s good music and good musicians on this album. I just wish there were more of it.
– Dan D. Harrell