NASHVILLE, TN. (Top40 Charts/ Holly Long Official Website) - As her own heroine, Holly Long tells a realistic and unapologetically frank story in every one of the thirteen tracks on her latest release, Leaving Kansas, available April 15, 2008. Reminiscent of
Annie Lennox, Sheryl Crow,
Sarah McLachlan and Fiona Apple, Long's piano-infused album is the epitome of candid beauty.
Her songs, all self-penned, are like personal conversations with her favorite people and private moments with the ones she loves. A grace and effortless poise ties the music together; the tracks weave in and out of soulful gospel and quiet poetics. Regardless of the song's tempo or subject, Long's conviction bleeds from every line.
Mortality and redemption are central themes on Leaving Kansas and, like all good writers, Long draws from personal experience. After becoming ill with what she initially thought was the flu, Long was diagnosed with Endocarditis, a severe heart infection. The infection soon wreaked havoc on her entire body and she fell into a coma. The coma, which lasted a week, forced her to begin the process of rebuilding her strength. She began reconditioning her muscles and relearning how to walk, putting her resiliency to the test. On Leaving Kansas, Long contributes the same strength she used to recover from illness to her songwriting, and the incident seems to have removed all shades of fear from her craft. She uses the near death experience to humbly offer up the entirety of herself for her art. Her sentiments echo through the song, "Excess" where she refuses to find herself "dying from an excess of no living."
In 2000, shortly after her recovery, she released City Girl, a record that illustrated her determination to free herself from something still so close and so raw. The record was met with critical adoration. Every Little Seam, City Girl's follow-up, came four years later and drew inspiration from her new family, especially her young daughter Josephine.
Today, Long lives in Venice, California, known as a hangout for the creative and the artistic, with her husband, concept creator of the hit ABC television show, Lost. As a mother, a wife and an artist, Long finds herself invigorated by the everyday, genuine love around her. "He and I," written for her son, Truman, is one of the most personal tracks on Leaving Kansas and illustrates the closeness of their relationship.
Leaving Kansas is Long's third full-length release. For this project Long compiled a stellar production team to help achieve her sonic aspirations, including respected music producer Anthony J.W. Benson, renowned recording engineer Ian Terry (David Bowie, Diana Krall, Leonard Cohen) and mastering wiz Dominick Maita (Fall Out Boy, Jewel, Curtis Stigers). The results of their collective efforts and years of experience are evident in their organic approach and the intimacy of the recording.
Like the music of the muses, Holly Long is able to take any listener away with her, captivating us with her enticing stories of love and life. Long's voice is smooth, inviting and comfortable - at moments powerful, strong and committed and at other times vulnerable, seductive and real. In Leaving Kansas, Long inspires, hypnotizes and asks the listener to trust her, and the captivated are happy to oblige.
