Playing for an Audience of Candles - Live Music Performance for Relaxation & Meditation | Perfect for Yoga Studios, Spas & Home Ambiance

Product Description "This is an extremely intricate, complex folk-rock album, in that it's full of intelligent writing and playing from start to finish." MUSIC-CRITIC - NOV 1999"A lot of thought was put into this cd. Listen and learn." THE MUSE'S MUSE MUSIC REVIEWS - SEPT. 1999"The more I hear, the more I like. Damn fine stuff. Should be going somewhere real soon. " AIDING AND ABETTING - JULY 1999"What Holder does best - creates a catchy melody with smart words." AMARILLO GLOBE NEWS - MAY 1999"Luke and his band leave us aware of our aliveness. And of our destiny." TR PRESS - JUNE 1999"Groundbreaking like a Y2K earthquake, sucka!" INDEPENDENT MONTHLY - MAY 1999"The quality of the music is amazing. I'm surprised they aren't bigger!" THE EDGE - JUNE 1999 Review Luke Holder - Playing for an Audience of Candles by Mark Feldman Luke Holder has released an intricate collection of folk rock songs. This is an outstanding disc, and is definitely worth checking out. Very professionally done, he shouldn't be playing for candles much longer. Playing for an Audience of Intricacy What would life be without a few cracks? muses this talented guitarist on the opening track to his new album. Indeed, imperfection seems to be a common theme in the songs of Luke Holder, whether its in the degeneration of a relationship going stale, the confessions of an immature college sophomore, the guilt of a criminal, or even the indulgences of an infatuated and tortured soul. And he succeeds by an intelligent synthesis of emotion and music in a way that very few acoustic guitarist / songwriters can. Take the very first song, Cracks - an effortlessly catchy upbeat tune weaved around words like Oblivious to the things that are going good / I cant think straight but I thought someday I could / Its like making a million dollars and bitching about the tax / what would life be without a few cracks? Or the sudden shift from a minor to a major key in Dark and Lovely coupled with He had never felt these emotions before / all together in a positive way. Or the happy-go-lucky refrain of Curbside Philosophy - Curbside philosophy of the anointed sophomore / I spend my time feeling better than all the freshmen / who have to do all the things I did before. Or how about the Eddie Vedder-like wailing in Impress Me - Just to get the taste of lust / and the taste of sin on your lips as a violin hums steadily in the background? He also succeeds by an ability to take a simple three or four chord progression and stretch it out into an epic beat poem like only a select few - think a punkish Bob Dylan, or more accurately a male and slightly subdued Ani DiFranco. Curbside Philosophy and Feel Good in particular both exhibit the DiFranco like twang, but with some added twists, like some haunting multi-tracked vocals, some fuzzbox guitar on the former, and some overly candid lyrics on the latter. But Holder forges an identity of his own by being so versatile. In addition to the twang, theres some beautiful confessional stuff going on here. Impress Me, Heart and a Hammer and K in NYC are as stellar and plaintive a trio of pleas from the heart as youre going to find in todays irony-filled music scene. This is an extremely intricate, complex folk-rock album, in that its full of intelligent writing and playing from start to finish. If you do anything else while you listen to it youll probably miss something. Turn down the lights and play this one when youre feeling introspective. If theres any justice in the world, Luke Holder wont be playing to an audience of candles for long. -mark feldman- [email protected] -- music-criticLuke Holder - Playing for an Audience of Candles by Mark Feldman Luke Holder has released an intricate collection of folk rock songs. This is an outstanding disc, and is definitely worth checking out. Very professionally done, he shouldn't be playing for candles much longer. -- Music-Critic, Nov. 1999Luke Holder, at 24, is very much the portrait of the artist as a Serious Young Man. Sitting in a coffee shop and bent over a book, his six-string nowhere in sight, Holder is easily mistaken for an English major cramming for finals. "It's "The Fountainhead," he said, closing a worn copy of Ayn Rand's hefty treatise. "It's one of my favorites. This is my third time to read it." Blonde curls twisting wildly away from his face, a two-day stubble on his chin, his wide blue eyes fix upon the listener when he speaks. "I don't care about being a rock star," he said. "I'm doing this for me. You could say I'm into lyric snobbery. I hate those songs that are just three chords of noise and don't say anything at all. I won't listen to them and I won't play them." In other words, don't look for Sammy Hagar's drunken frat-boy anthem "Mas Tequila" in Holder's sets or his CD changer. In music, he listens for the words, he said, trying to find a clever turn of phrase, maybe an emotion that rings true or just a cool story. Flip through Holder's music collection and a pattern begins to develop. Elvis Costello, Lyle Lovett and Smashing Pumpkins share sonic real estate with freaky lyric chicks like P.J. Harvey and Ani DiFranco. He counts these artists as some of his strongest influences. "I do some covers, just not ones that anyone's ever heard of. I'm not a jukebox," he said. Some of Holder's self-assurance probably comes from Rand's writing and the rest just comes from being able to get up on stage and sing his guts out. "It's so fun singing, but it's probably my own inflated ego," he said, smiling. "You don't understand how huge your ego has to be to get up there and force people to listen to you. It's got to be about you. It can't be about money." And it sure isn't about the money for Holder. He walked away from a big bucks position with the global accounting and consulting firm BDO Seidman in New York last year. He came back to Amarillo for $50 a night gigs so he could write and perform his own music. "I was doing well financially, but I was so miserable. Right now, this is what makes me happy. The whole project has exceeded all of my expectations," he said. With the help of his brother Drew, drummer John Lerma, cellist Kristen Putchinski and bassist Jassen Brown, Holder wrote and produced "Playing For An Audience of Candles," a 13-song CD of original music. Deals with New Jersey-based Disc Makers in addition to Web distributor Internet Underground Music Association also assisted in the delivery of Holder's first independent project. A former member of local band The Brothers Grim, Holder said he relishes the freedom to finally call his own shots. "Once it was just me getting to sing and perform my own work, it was just exhilarating," he said. Recently, Lerma and bassist Carlos Olguin have backed him up as "The Longnecks" when he performs. "I can't get enough of it. As long as it doesn't limit me, I don't care where the work takes me. I'm not afraid to play anywhere," he said. On his CD, he shows that he's not afraid to be misunderstood either. Several songs use "I" and "he," pronouns which could lead the listener to think that a song like "Troubled Sea" is autobiographical. A close listen to his slam-poetic lyrics though, reveals the song's critique of excess. "I hear my mom's voice/Every time I fry/I drink just to watch/My brain cells die" he sings in a raggedy baritone. The track "Impress Me" has a moody, contemplative intro that recalls Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan. Putchinski's melancholy cello adds just the right emotional flourish on a song about bravado in the face of being jilted. On "Feel Good," Holder uses electronic sampling and a repeating buzz-distortion riff to highlight the song's theme of crazed attraction. But it is "Cracks" that showcases what Holder does best - creating a catchy melody with smart words: "The money I don't deserve/I put on reserve/For someday when I'm free," he writes in a song cataloging his mixed feelings about being a corporate man. Lerma's tom-toms dovetail with Putchinski's cello for an interesting minimalist sound, while Joe Ed White's raspy harmonica gives the song an alterna-country feel. -- Amarillo Globe NewsThe Muses Muse Music Reviews Sept. 1999 By Ben Ohmart www. Atnzone.com Luke Holder - Playing For An Audience of Candles An acoustic set of personal philosophies that fall on the ear with Strong guitar, and sometimes universal sentiment. There are other songwriting subjects here besides the usual boy/girl stuff. Take 'Guilty Man' which begins so I went to the jail / I tipped my hat / and I paid the bail /I ran down the street / and got me a lawyer'. Rock tweaked with a bit of folk (especially in choice of subjects). At least 1 acoustic guitar, drums, voice, don't know if there's a bass (I sometimes have trouble hearing that instrument), to produce a very natural, sweet angst album. There's also a homemade sound here that gives it a nice indie feel. It was recorded at AMP Recording Studio, but it sounds like it could've been made right at home, with a whole bunch of friends watching. An interesting thing about this cd is that ALL of the many words are printed in the 2 pg. booklet. It's like reading the Oxford English Dictionary, but you won't Quite need a magnifying glass. I'm just glad To be able to read the words. I'd rather that. So I can know What He's Saying, plus include some quotes I fancy, like 'challenged thoughts / and Feelings gifted / through your brain / your thoughts sifted / tilt your head When your spirit's lifted / and leave certain weapons / in the closet' from 'Darkness Training'. A lot of thought was put into this cd. Listen and learn. -- The Muses Muse Music Reviews Sept. 1999 About the Artist I am not a jukebox. I am a songwriter. I write songs for people - for you, for me, for that person driving down the highway screaming. I guess it came out that I wanted someone else besides me to hear these songs, because you are reading this. I tried to avoid it - went to college, finished, got a job, quit, went crazy and recorded an album. It's my 4th release and my first independent, self-titled project. This is the closest that I have ever gotten to my musical vision. Solid songs. Real lyrics. Good music. See more