Tony Holiday – Keep Your Head Up
8 songs – 30 minutes
Keep Your Head Up is Tony Holiday’s seventh release since his 2019 debut release, Porch Sessions, which is a pretty impressive rate of production, especially when one takes into account the global pandemic lockdown in 2020. The good news however, is that there appears to be no current risk of becoming jaded by excess. The quality of the songwriting, musicianship and production means that Keep Your Head Up merely inspires the listener to check out Holiday’s earlier releases.
Mixing Memphis soul with Texas blues, Chicago blues, a dash of blues-rock, and a hint of hill country blues, Holiday has crafted a sound that is both modern and yet rooted firmly in the 1960s. It is a glorious mash-up of genres that also remains true soul-blues.
Holiday uses a variety of musicians across the album, together with guest appearances from some stellar friends. The core band includes the drummers Matt Tecu, Ray Hangan, Eric Freeman and Andrew McNeil; bassists Taras Prodaniuk, Gordon Greenwood and Terrence Grayson; guitarist Jad Tariq; backing singers Saundra Williams, Eric Corne and Benton Parker; trumpeteer, Mark Pender; saxophinist David Ralicke; and keyboardist Sasha Smith. Special guests include Chad Mason on Fender Rhodes, Kevin Burt on vocals and Eddie 9V, Albert Castiglia and Laura Chavez on guitars. Holiday himself has a superb blue-eyed soul voice and also adds spicy harmonica to three tracks.
Recorded by Eric Corne at Archer Recording Studio, Memphis TN, Love Street Sound in Glendale CA and Forty Below Studios in Encino CA, the result is an impressively consistent sound with a warmth and depth often missing in modern recordings.
The album opens with the funky “She’s A Burglar”, which features some searingly jagged guitar from Eddie 9V and Mason’s sweeping Fender Rhodes. The horn lines add dramatic emphasis to Holiday’s tale of being a victim to a woman stealing his heart. It really sets out the stall nicely for the rest of the album, with the Rhodes and the horns sitting squarely in the Memphis soul pocket but the guitar playing being all blues.
The tasty duet with Kevin Burt, “Twist My Fate”, has hints of middle-period Fabulous Thunderbirds and nicely sparse harmonica, while the simple ear-worm of a guitar riff in the reggae-blues of “Woman Named Trouble” makes the song highly memorable. Pender’s trumpet solo is magnificent.
“Good Times” is the kind of dancing track that the Blues Brothers would have made famous, while Laura Chavez’s always-on-the-money guitar adds an additional layer of class to “Shoulda Known Better”. The songs are not complex but are very cleverly written, never settling for simple 12-bar structure, and often with an infuriatingly catchy chorus – “Walk On The Water” is one particular example. It’ll only take a listen or not before you find yourself unexpectedly singing the chorus whilst having your morning shower.
Albert Castiglia contributes ace vocals and guitars to “Drive It Home” before the album closes with the piano-led soul ballad, “I Can Not Feel The Rain”.
“Keep Your Head Up” is one of those uplifting albums where you just want to play it again as soon as it finishes. It may be only 30 minutes long, but there isn’t a wasted note here. Really great stuff.
