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I Am: Music From The SoulArtist: Charles HoltProducer: Ben Dowling Genre: Inspirational/Jazz-R&B
Charles Holt heard a voice, and it turned out to be his ownHe wanted to play football, and that was okay with his mother—as long as he also promised to sing in the choir of their Nashville church. Fellow choir member Lula Perry remembers the first time she heard the high school athlete open his mouth. “You stood there, flatfooted, and sang,” she says to Charles Holt now. “You blew me off the planet. I said, ‘He’s got it!’ Conviction, from the heart, anointed. It’s time for your gift to be released to the world. Oh yes.”It was a destiny that he denied for a decade—trying out for the NFL as a defensive back in college, moving into a predictable marketing career at IBM—but with the release of the collection I Am, Charles Holt at last gives powerful voice to his deeply personal message of freedom, healing and inspiration. It is a rich audio-biography that follows him from his roots in Southern gospel through the blues, soul, funk, jazz, to Broadway and beyond. Every tune has meaning, from the Sunday school version of “Jesus Loves Me” he learned from his pianist grandmother to the patriotic anthem he sang at his first Broadway audition, a startlingly fresh rendition of “America the Beautiful.” And, yes, the boy from Tennessee got the part—in a touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar, which in turn lead to Smokey Joe’s Café, a European tour as Rocky in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and four years on Broadway in The Lion King. But always, as he built his career, Holt kept listening for the inner voice that first propelled him onto the path of a performer, the voice that had told him to leave his white-collar job to study acting in Atlanta, then to take off for New York with $400 in his pocket. “It’s time,” the voice always said. When he heard it again, he knew that this time the voice meant that he should find his own voice. Holt moved to Los Angeles, where he began work with Visionsound producer Ben Dowling to craft I Am. He also launched a one-man show, Black Boy, based on the tumultuous life of Native Son author Richard Wright. After he sold out the John F. Kennedy Center in the nation’s capitol, the Washington Post critic reported that “Shifting among personalities, Holt flared into moments of idiosyncratic animation, always settling back into the grave tones and dignified posture of Wright the narrator.” “He has the gift of connection,” elaborates Brigham Young University’s Ben Howington, “The second he steps on stage, you feel the connection.” Holt continues to tour the nation’s college campuses and has recently launched The Smoke King, another one-man show devised for him by the estate of W.E.B. DuBois, based on the life of the African-American intellectual and civil rights activist. And now, he is weaving all the themes together in America, the Black, the Beautiful, true musical theater, a show based on this debut recording that will feature his voice—not only as an actor and a black man—but as a musician with that visceral gift of connection. “Music moves me, it heals me,” he says. “The classics on I Am are timeless, with a message for everybody, of freedom, healing, inspiration and authenticity. That’s what the world is calling out for.” As Lula puts it, “It’s soul music—it’s music from your soul.” I Am - track listing
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