Tony Holiday
Keep Your Head Up
Forty Below Records
Multi-talented soul/blues artist Tony Holiday releases his new album, Keep Your Head Up, produced by Eric Corne and featuring guests such as Eddie 9V, Kevin Burt, Albert Castiglia, and Laura Chavez, who last year won the Blues Music Award for Guitarist of the Year. Originally from Salt Lake City, in 2017, Holiday moved to Memphis, where he immersed himself in the soul blues revival.
Made up of eight tracks, Keep Your Head Up opens with “She’s A Burglar,” a Texas Blues tune with Eddie 9V adding his voice to the mix, along with his cutting lead guitar. A Fender Rhodes along with a Hammond organ invests the tune with a luscious, sleazy rolling motion.
Talking about the song, Holiday says, “I chose this song because it’s been an all-time favorite of mine for years, the Howard Tate and Freddie King version. Eddie 9V added an authentic sting to the song with his guitar and set the tone with his great vocals.”
Suggested entry points include the swaying “Twist My Fate,” written by Corne. Holiday’s crying harmonica and Kevin Burt’s distinctive vocals make the song a delectable blues grinder.
Hints of reggae blend with blues textures on “A Woman Named Trouble.” A wailing trumpet, courtesy of Mark Pender (Max Weinberg 7, The Tonight Show Band), delivers a bright, knife-like edge to the tune. “Shoulda Known Better” highlights braying brass accents and the stellar guitar of Laura Chavez, whose licks conjure up splashes of B.B. King. Chavez makes her guitar wag its chin.
A personal favorite because of its sensuous flow, “Walk On The Water” revolves around a nasty, bobbing rhythm that imbues the melody with a wicked, snaking sensation. A simple “Chopsticks” tinniness projects dirty tension, adding an atavistic savor to the tune.
The wonderful “I Can Not Feel The Rain,” drips with aching nostalgia and hues of melancholy. Merging country and soul, the song offers a pleasant stylistic change that still fits perfectly into the album’s motif, yet ties it off with finesse.
Brimming with stellar talent, Keep Your Head Up uses “marinated-in-the-blues” melodies as the framework of a remarkable album.
