Michael Holt is an American musician based in

Truro, Massachusetts Truro is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, comprising two villages: Truro and North Truro. Located slightly more than 100 miles (160 km) by road from Boston, it is a summer vacation community just south of the nor ...

. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1968, and raised in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he learned to play the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

as a child.

Early life

In high school (

Hunter College High School Hunter College High School is a secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Hunter is publicly funded, and there i ...

) in the early 1980s, he formed a band called The Connotations, which played regularly at

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kri ...

and other downtown clubs in New York. Holt played

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, sang, and wrote most of the group's songs. Other members included (at various times) Dan Seiden (

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, vocals), Dan Fisherman (

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, vocals), Simon Walsh (

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, vocals), Bob Dee (guitar), Sam Bardfeld (

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, vocals),

Oren Bloedow Oren Bloedow (born July 3, 1965) is an American singer, guitarist and bassist. He founded the band Elysian Fields in 1995 with Jennifer Charles. His father, Jerry Bloedow, was a playwright, poet, and film editor whose theater, the Hardware Poe ...

(

), Jenny Wade (

), and Alexis Stern (vocals). The band's style was a combination of

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

, new wave,

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

, pop, and a dissonant, angular style they called "Bug Music." In 1988, The Connotations broke up and Holt formed a new band called Pajama Garden, with Connotations drummer Dan Fisherman, and bassist Oren Bloedow. In 1990, Holt began playing with

progressive pop Progressive pop is pop music that attempts to break with the genre's standard formula, or an offshoot of the progressive rock genre that was commonly heard on AM radio in the 1970s and 1980s. It was originally termed for the early progressive ...

band The Mommyheads, and in 1991 released his first solo album, the experimental pop "Pajama Garden."

The Mommyheads

In 1992, Holt and Fisherman moved to San Francisco, California, to join The Mommyheads as permanent members. Other members of The Mommyheads included Adam Cohen (now Adam Elk) (

), Jeff Palmer ( bass), and Matt Patrick (now Devin Patrick) ( bass,

). Through the 90's The Mommyheads toured North America extensively and released several albums, the last co-produced by

Don Was Don Edward Fagenson (born September 13, 1952), known professionally as Don Was, is an American musician, record producer and record executive. Primarily a bass player, Was co-founded the funk-rock band Was (Not Was). In later years he produced s ...

for Geffen Records. In 1996 Holt married Cora Simone, a Canadian woman he had met on tour, who had come to live with him in San Francisco. In 1998, The Mommyheads broke up and Holt released his contemplative folk album "I'm Here With You," featuring just voice and a single nylon-stringed guitar. (The Mommyheads would reunite in 2008.) Shortly after, he began work on his alternative power-pop album "Pilot Single," and moved with Simone to her native Toronto.

Toronto

In Toronto, Holt started a band called The Kids, with bassist Peter Murray, guitarist

David Celia David Celia is an independent singer-songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario, who has built an audience across Canada and in Europe. He has toured regularly since 2005. Beginning in 1989, Celia was a member of Tarnished Gallahad featuring Matei Kaj ...

, and longtime

Ron Sexsmith Ronald Eldon Sexsmith (born January 8, 1964) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario. He was the songwriter of the year at the 2005 Juno Awards. He began releasing recordings of his own material in 1985 at age 21, and has ...

drummer

Don Kerr Don Kerr is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is the drummer, lead singer and front man of Toronto band, Communism. He plays in Ron Sexsmith's band,classical-influenced album "Windows," made a low-fi split-CD with American indie-rock band

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (SSLYBY) is an American indie pop band from Springfield, Missouri. They are named after Boris Yeltsin, the first President of Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Their first full-length album, ''Br ...

, and toured Germany with San Francisco–based psychedelic jam-band

Mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is t ...

. He played and recorded with numerous Canadian artists, including

, David Celia,

Owen Pallett Michael James Owen Pallett (born September 7, 1979) is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Under their erstwhile moniker of Final Fantasy, Pallett won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album ''He Poos Clouds''. Pallet ...

, Michelle Rumball, Waleed Abdulhamid,

The Hidden Cameras The Hidden Cameras are a Canadian indie pop band. Fronted by singer-songwriter Joel Gibb, the band consists of a varying roster of musicians who play what Gibb once described as "gay church folk music". Their live performances have been elaborate ...

, Ronley Teper, Ben Gunning,

Wooden Stars Wooden Stars are a Canadian indie rock band formed in 1994. The band, from Ottawa, consists of vocalist and guitarist Julien Beillard, guitarist Michael Feuerstack, bassists Josh Latour and Mathieu Beillard, and drummer Andrew McCormack. Style ...

, Tanya Philipovich, Brian MacMillan, Karyn Ellis, and Adam Warner. He played the title track at the 20th anniversary of

Bob Wiseman Robert Neil "Bob" Wiseman (born 1962) is a film composer, songwriter, author and music teacher. Wiseman discovered or produced many artists including Ron Sexsmith, The Lowest of the Low, Bruce McCulloch of Kids in the Hall, Anhai, and former ...

's record "In Her Dream," a song he would later record for his own album "Jubilation!" In his first years in Canada, Holt became involved with a Toronto-area community called Living Circle, which explored holistic health, spirituality, and community-building, in intimate groups called "circles."

On the road

In 2007, Holt began spending an increasing amount of his time on the road, mainly as a solo artist, and also with The Mommyheads, who reunited in 2008. In 2010, he made his folk-rock flavored album "The Dawn Chorus" with his band The Kids. Discovering a passion for

house concert A house concert or home concert is a musical concert or performance art that is presented in someone's home or apartment, or a nearby small private space such as a barn, apartment rec room, lawn, or backyard."VIDEO: House concert in Royal Oak," '' ...

s, he began focusing his tours on them. His 2011 "Make Our Own Culture Tour" consisted of 60 intimate living room gatherings across North America and Europe, featuring a variety of other performers and participatory activities. In 2012, he released his '70s-pop tinged album "Jubilation!" and played on Bob Wiseman's record "Giulietta Masina at the Oscars Crying." He also played a European "Transition Culture Tour" of 40 intimate concerts followed by talking circles, in support of the

Transition Towns The terms transition town, transition initiative and transition model refer to grassroot community projects that aim to increase self-sufficiency to reduce the potential effects of peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instabilitythrough r ...

sustainability movement. In 2009, wit
https://marcelaucoin.bandcamp.com/
Holt founded music and conversation series called The Piano Salon. It occurred each month in a different Toronto home, featuring two sets by local acts, and between them, a conversation led by a guest speaker. The series lasted for nine years.

"Slow" Music

In 2010, Holt began work on a book applying the principles of the

Slow Food Slow Food is an organization that promotes local food and traditional cooking. It was founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986 and has since spread worldwide. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regi ...

movement, and the Slow movement in general, to music, advancing ten practices by which the ordinary consumer can discover a more mindful, socially conscious, community-oriented, and fulfilling relationship to music.

Cultural activities

Holt's interest in house concerts widened to include all kinds of cultural activities in the home. In 2014, he co-organized Toronto's First Annual Festival of House Culture, a weekend of theater, music, visual arts, poetry, comedy, film, food, conversations, and workshops, all in people's homes. Ten events were programmed within walking distance of each other, to build community by encouraging neighbors to connect through culture in their own homes. In 2013, wit
Luke Jackson
Holt founded Catweazle Toronto, a monthly, public, no-microphones performance gathering based on the weekl
Catweazle Club
in Oxford, England.

24 Preludes for Piano

In 2015, Holt released "24 Preludes for Piano," a double album of original classical pieces inspired by early 20th Century composers such as

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

Alexander Scriabin Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (; russian: Александр Николаевич Скрябин ; – ) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. Before 1903, Scriabin was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin and composed ...

, and

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

. He also put on Toronto's Second Annual Festival of House Culture, this time with 19 events, and simultaneous programming in two different neighborhoods. In 2016, Holt mounted Toronto'
Third Annual Festival of House Culture
with 45 events all over the city. In 2017, he moved to Truro, Massachusetts, to provide live-in care for his aging parents.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holt, Michael Hunter College High School alumni American emigrants to Canada Canadian rock keyboardists Canadian rock singers Canadian male singers Canadian singer-songwriters Living people 1968 births Musicians from Boston Canadian male singer-songwriters