Blues Audience article

Kit Holliday wins a Blues Audience
2005 Readers Poll Award!

Article contributed to current issue of
The Blues Audience newsletter Dec/Jan 2006
by freelance writer- Bill Copeland- photo by Allegra Boverman

Winning “Outstanding Female Singer in 7th Annual Blues Audience Readers Poll is the latest award for Kit Holliday, lead vocalist of the Matthew Stubbs Band. The band also won the Boston Blues Challenge in the summer of 2003, securing them a performance at the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Competition in Memphis,TN in January 2004. They placed third out of 90 bands.
Still, Kit Holliday was humbled by the recent reader’s poll. “I was quite surprised,” she said. “I was really honored to be voted best out of such a high quality group [New England musicians]. It was astonishing and I can’t express my appreciation enough. Thank you, Blues Audience readers.”
Out of all the music genres she could tackle, blues makes the greatest impact on her. “Nothing speaks [to me] like the blues,” Holliday said. “I believe there’s more empathy and emotion, more about the human condition expressed in blues than in any other kind of American music. It doesn’t have to be sad or depressing; it can be sassy, ironic, uplifting or just telling a story. The sometimes simplisticform of the music has the capacity to reach people at a very basic and intense level. Blues doesn’t seem to be too popular right now, but I still would rather play music that feels real, then make more money doing something that doesn’t reach me.”
Listening to her perform, one would think singing comes easily to this chanteuse. Singing the blues does put demands on Holliday’s voice. “It’s definitely a workout, especially with the range of stuff we do in our band,” she said. “Singing a ‘blues belter’ and then singing a softer number is like vocal gymnastics and I don’t always meet those challenges with my best form.”
Conjuring up the emotions of each song, every night, puts another demand on Holliday. Like an actress playing a role, the singer must feel what the song is about and put that across to the audience. Baring one’s heart and soul in a room full of strangers is never easy,
especially with many distractions during the live set.
Working with Matthew Stubbs gives Holliday the support she needs for her gutsy, raspy approach. “The sound of the band is great,” she exclaimed. “The warmth of the instruments and gear the guys choose to play, their laid back musicianship, their tastefulness and general unwillingness to overplay is rare in a guitar based band. But the guys can also heat it up when they want, which is a good thing when the evening gets late.”
Originally from Pennsylvania, Holliday moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music. But she got a job in the computer industry and that
derailed her plans to get a solid music
education. She soon got her foot in the door of the local blues scene, attending blues jams all over the city, making friends and developing contacts. She sat in with many people and this lead to a meeting a special friend.
“Blues jams taught me, among other things, that Rick Russell is a phenomenal guitar player, a huge historical resource and one funny and sarcastic mofo,” she said. “I have great memories of the days when I first moved to Boston and some of the players I met back then. Many of them are still great friends of mine.”
Boston, she said, isn’t nearly what it was when she arrived. “Back then, you had to pick among five to 10 bands you wanted to see on any given weekend night,” the singer recounted. “In recent years, you’re lucky if anybody has a gig, on a night you have off.”
The Matthew Stubbs band is where Holliday has come to nest after playing out with a bunch of bands over a lengthy career. “I’ve been a full time member of many bands for over half my life. This is just the latest in a long string of them. I like to stick it out with one solid thing, so I don’t get too burned out.”
Holliday also races motorcycles, designs websites and she used to be an ambulance driver. If that doesn’t keep her busy, she also maintains her own website www.chicksinga.com that includes a site for The Matthew Stubbs Band.
She is satisfied with the way things have been going for her band. Still, she said, “it would be nice to have some tour support and maybe some renewed label interest. However, this band hasn’t been around that long and probably still has some dues to pay. So I certainly wouldn’t complain about lack of opportunities at this stage.”
Optimism seems to be the singer’s life philosophy. “We’ve done very well so far and Matt has worked very hard for the breaks we’ve had. I expect nothing but good things in the future. I’d like to make music full time, create good music that I love and other people enjoy... and be able to survive financially while doing it.”
“Pretty simple goals, I think.”