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Holly Bowling

Whether behind the piano on a windswept mountainous cliff, at a hallowed venue such as Carnegie Hall, or playing shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the most legendary musicians in history, solo pianist Holly Bowling subverts convention with virtuosic playing, emotional immersion, and a thirst for invention. In 2015, she arrived as an exciting outlier on Distillation Of A Dream: The Music Of Phish Reimagined For Solo Piano. As her profile rose, she delivered Better Left Unsung only a year later. For this triple-LP, she re-arranged iconic moments from the Grateful Dead on her piano. It bowed in the Top 25 of the Billboard Top Classical Albums Chart. She went on to share the stage with everyone from The Dead’s Weir and Phil Lesh to Warren Haynes, John Scofield, Jim James, Branford Marsalis, Don Was, Robert Randolph, Greensky Bluegrass, and more. Along the way, she graced the bills of Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads and Haynes’s annual Christmas Jam and unveiled the concert recording Live at the Old Church. Simultaneously, she co-founded improvisational rock outfit Ghost Light in 2018. Engaging a faithful audience even in the midst of the “new normal” of 2020, she launched a series of living room livestreams chronicled on the eight-volume Alone Together: The Living Room Sessions highlighted by her innovative re-imaginings of Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and many others.

Acclaimed by Rolling Stone, Billboard, Relix, and more, she once again flips the script on her 2020 album and second reimagining of Grateful Dead staples entitled Seeking All That’s Still Unsung.

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4
Year in Review

Doug Collette's Best Releases Of 2020

Read "Doug Collette's Best Releases Of 2020" reviewed by Doug Collette


Given the challenging year that was 2020, “Best of..." lists may turn out to be the high points of the last twelve months. Certainly there were times in the spring when it seemed as though a drought of new music might be inescapable, but as summer turned to fall, the titles kept rolling out, with the usual clockwork regularity (almost). Here, then, is music worth remembering, released during a time mostly worth forgetting. Kim Simmonds/Savoy Brown

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Album Review

Holly Bowling: Better Left Unsung

Read "Better Left Unsung" reviewed by Doug Collette


As wry as is the implication of its title, Holly Bowling's double album of Grateful Dead material, Better Left Unsung, is utterly absorbing. These thirteen wholly instrumental, solo piano renditions of material spanning the spectrum of the iconic San Francisco band's songbook illuminate why the songs are so memorable on their own terms as well as fodder for inspired improvisation. Perhaps it's Holly Bowling's her background as a classically trained pianist, but she never dumbs down her playing. ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Seeking All That's...

Self Produced
2020

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Better Left Unsung

Royal Potato Family
2016

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