Michael Holloway

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Michael Holloway grew up in the Mississippi Delta, spending his childhood in Arkansas & Mississippi. His exposure to music came early, accompanying his father to blues jams with other workers in the wood pulp business. "I got to hang in these jukes listening to Z.Z. Hill, Albert King, B.B. and Jimmy Reed. It always makes me tingle inside. I knew that's what I wanted to do. I still cross the Mississippi state line and get cold chills up my arm. I know that's the hold of the blues, I can still feel it." Playing from the left side, Holloway learned to play on his own, playing on his father's guitar upside down. "The 3 Kings" -- Albert, B.B. and Freddie -- heavily influenced Holloway. Add a touch of Clapton and a healthy respect for the slide work of Sonny Landreth, and you have some sense of his roots. The "Southpaw from Arkansas" said in a 1998 interview that he plays each night "like it's my last, 'cause it may very well be, and I want to leave the people with something special."

Holloway spent many years as a sideman, sometimes just a guitar slinger, sometimes the primary singer and songwriter in addition to the guitar. Coming off nearly three solid years on the road, he decided in 1998 that it was time to step out front. He took a stack of his songs into the studio and left with Blues Travels Fast, his first solo release, which met with great reviews and left people asking why he hadn't stepped out sooner. He shared the stage with Debbie Davies, Son Seals, Joe Kubek and B'nois King, Carey Bell, Anson Funderburgh, Tommy Castro, Kenny Neal, Big Joe Turner, and many more. Real Blues Magazine recognized the album as one of the Top 5 Southern Blues Album of 1999, also naming Michael the Best Southern Blues Guitarist.

But his interview comment about playing each night like it might be his last seemed ominously prescient, when in the fall of 1999, he fell off a roof while helping a friend with some home repairs. He shattered his arm and broke his foot, putting his career temporarily in doubt. But taking inspiration from Son Seals and his own father, who'd lost a leg years before, Holloway never missed a gig. He hired another guitar player while he went through months of re-hab. His band mates lifted him up on stages, so he could sing and front the band.

By the fall of 2000 Michael was all the way back, earning Music City Blues Awards as Entertainer of the Year and Guitarist of the Year. He's now completed another album of original material, Ridin' This Train, on the Nightfly label. Look for him coming to your town.

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