BY TIM SHELLBERG
Times Correspondent | Sunday, May 18,
2008
Crown Point songwriter and performer Josh Holmes was pleasantly surprised when
taking a trip down memory lane to choose selections for his latest pair of
discs.
"Lyrically, I was very overly dramatic, and I really didn't know what I was
talking about when I wrote them, but when I listen to them now, they make sense
to me," he said.
"It's almost like I was looking ahead on some of the songs."
Celebrating the release of a pair of new discs, "Stripped Down Volume 1" and
"Stripped Down Volume 2" Thursday at Teibels Banquet Hall in Schererville,
Holmes is celebrating his 10th year as a performer and songsmith.
After doing time in the local outfit Krooked Minds as a teen in the mid '90s,
Holmes, whose brand of modern-era rock and power pop is rooted in inspiration by
pop-music architects such as Buddy Holly and Smokey Robinson, released his first
solo effort, "At the End of The Tunnel," in 1998.
Subsequent albums -- including 2001's "364 Days," 2003's "Table 4 One" and
2006's "2nd Generation Loss" -- have kept him a favorite among music fans in the
region.
And performances throughout the country over the last decade as well as recent
opening slots for mainstream favorites ranging from Sister Hazel to the Marshall
Tucker Band have increased his visibility and fan base on the homefront.
"I'm just so thankful for the success that I've had in the area," he said.
"I haven't had to work a day job for nine years and have been able to support
myself through music for nine years. I get to do what I love for a living. How
can you beat that?"
Holmes' latest "Stripped" efforts were recorded between April and December 2007
at Alpha 101 Studios in Lowell. They are solo creations in the truest sense of
the word; the only other person in the studio with Holmes during the recording
sessions was Erik Dahl, who served as the albums' engineer.
Holmes penned 10 new songs for his "Stripped" discs. For the remaining tracks,
he chose selections first heard as far back as 1998's "Tunnel" and others he
wrote as far back as the mid '90s as a teenager.
"It's just like if I was sitting on the couch playing to somebody in their
living room," he said.
"Because everything is so stripped down, there's really not a genre (for the
songs). You can imagine them with electric guitars as rock, or with a settle
guitar as a country song, or with an acoustic guitar as a folk song. They're
left up to the listener's interpretation to find the genre."
Admission to Thursday's release party includes a copy of either "Stripped Down
Volume 1" or "Stripped Down Volume 2."