Video Wednesday

We haven't heard much new stuff from her lately, but Lily Holbrook is still one of our favorites around here, so we're going to present a video of her song "Apocalpse Kiss."

SONG OF THE DAY

Today we present one of my favorite singers, Lily Holbrook with her cover of the Ozzy Osborne song "Mama, I'm Coming Home" from her album Everything Was Beautiful.

Housekeeping

We know that this site hasn't been keeping up with it's announced goal of a weekly Spotlight and for that everyone here at Voices to Hear apologizes. (It's actually pretty easy to get us all on the same page, even though we're using the "royal" we, it's just me putting this site together.) I could make a long list of what's been going wrong and a million and one other excuses, but that still doesn't get the Spotlight out on a weekly basis, so I'll skip the excuses and offer my sincere apology and promise to do better.

It's a new year and we promise to try and do better this year. Our goal is to present a Spotlight every week, hopefully on Monday or as close to that day as we can make it. We have a long list of artists that we hope to feature in forthcoming Spotlights.

We also have lots more new features for the site. Hopefully our interview "Simply Six" will expand and feature more artists. Lily Holbrook actually sent hers back, but there was a mess up with the computers and it didn't come through, so she's re-doing it. We're expanding it out, sending it to more artists in the hope that we'll get more back.

Soon we'll be introducing a new feature called "Buried Treasures". This feature will showcase music from the past that we feel should not go unnoticed and warrants some attention. As always our aim with this feature will be to featured some music that is slightly off the radar from the majority of the music buying public. Hopefully we'll introduce you to some great older music that you might not have heard.

Also this year looks to be full of concerts. The New Orleans Jazz Fest will be here before long and lots of great music inbetween than. Our concert reviews will be featured more frequently.

And last but not least we hope to start featuring album reviews. There's a lot of great albums out there that we want to bring a little attention to. Sometimes we try to make our Spotlights come out when that featured artist has a new album coming out, but we don't always make it, so some great albums are slipping through the cracks.

While we said that the above was the last we also are hoping to run a round up of some of the best music from the last year that shouldn't go unnoticed or unheard. So we have an ambitious slate ahead of us for the coming year.

We'd like to hear from anyone that actually reads this site. Please leave some comments. Tell us what you think works and what doesn't. Give us your feedback on certain artists, let us know what you think about them. At the end of each Spotlight we link to mp3's for a handful of songs from said artist, give them a try, these are some great songs.

We also have a cafepress shop where you can buy some neat things with the VtH logo on it. We plan to expand this also and offer more goodies for you to spend your hard earned money on.

And finally, yes we really mean it this time, pass this site on to a friend. If you like it tell someone else. The purpose of this site is to push great music from artists that don't get the recognition they deserve, in other words - The Best Music You've Never Heard - so let as many people know about this site as you can so more people can hear them.

Lily Holbrook

This week’s Voice to Hear is another MySpace discovery. Though this time it didn’t come to me as a request. I found her site while browsing someone else’s site. I wish I could remember who I started off with to discover her, but it’s lost in my slowly senile drifting mind. Whoever it was I owe a big thanks, because I have become hooked on Lily Holbrook. As soon as I landed on her page and the music started I was entranced. She has one of those voices that just reach out and grabs ahold of you and doesn’t want to let go.

Lily Holbrook is a young singer/songwriter that started her career busking on the streets of Boston while she was in college. Busking is another name for those street musicians you see on the side of the street or in the subway stations playing their guitar and singing with the guitar case opened for tips while most people wander by without even stopping to listen. Lily started her career this way because she was too shy to appear on stage and figured this was an easier way to sing in front of others. She soon gained enough confidence and a following that she started to play the local clubs in the Boston area and began to attract a following. Local busker and now recording artist/singer Mary Lou Lord calls Lily “Boston’s best kept secret.”

In 1999 Lily released her independent debut Running From the Sky. Drawing comparisons to Tori Amos and Kate Bush with her writing style and her singing/playing the album creates it sound with simple guitars and some strings. Her voice reminds me of Jewel, hauntingly beautiful.

Next up Lily was featured as one of 16 street musicians in the documentary Playing For Change. This documentary featured 16 different street singers and told their story. Her appearance in the movie helped secure her a contract with Backporch Records, a subsidy of EMI/Virgin.

Her next album was the Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt. For my money this is one of the best album titles I’ve seen. I like it when an artist titles his album something besides the name of his latest hit song. To me it sounds better when they dig a little deeper and name the album for some feeling or emotion they’re trying to convey with the entire album. Lily captures that perfectly with the title of this album.

This album uses a wider range of musical equipment and her folkie tendencies are joined with a wider range of musical noise. Writing that makes it sound like a terrible sound, but Lily pulls it off. She doesn’t lose her sound from her first album, she just adds a bigger musical palette to paint with.

A lot of Lily’s music concerns itself with beauty and physical appearances and what today’s society expects of women. On her new album she does a cover of Ozzy Osborne’s “Mama, I’m Coming Home” in tribute to her late brother. This is a beautiful cover of the song that slowly builds to a stunning climax.

Lily has left Boston for the warmer streets of L.A. While in L.A. she was presented with the idea of becoming the “next” Brittney Spears, but decided she would rather make music that mattered to her and not just sing formulaic pop songs. She’s since left L.A. for a life on the road and is touring in support of her music. Her last album was released two years ago, here’s hoping she’s working on a new one and also that her tour will bring her down this way.

As an added note and bonus Lily is one of the artists that I sent an interview to and has already emailed me back that she's working on it. I'm looking forward to seeing her Simply Six.