David Holt

Perpetual Motion (Blue Corn)

A A A Comments By William Michael Smith Thursday, Nov 18 2004

The opening stanza of David Holt's Perpetual Motion is as biographical as it gets. After 25 years on the road with the likes of Carlene Carter, the Mavericks, Joe Ely and Austin supergroup Storyville, Holt can credibly sing, "bones may rattle, bones will shake / keep on runnin' like there ain't no break / keep on, keep on, keep on rollin' till the wheels fall off."

Holt suprises with his assured voice, if not his guitar punch.

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Holt's first solo album allows him the room to show off an amazing array of guitar styles and songwriting influences, ranging from blues to rock to country, gathered and nurtured in a quarter-century of service as a sought-after guitar ace. Fans who've noticed the huge hole in the Texas rock scene since the dissolution of Storyville, which also counted David Grissom, Stevie Ray vets Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton and soul shouter Malford Milligan among its members, will welcome the reprise of Storyville's "Searchin' Under Stone," the funked-up "Leave a Message," and the soulful remake of Nick Lowe's "Fool Who Knows." Holt's version of Carlene Carter's "Roadblock" flat-out rocks, while his "Outta This World" recalls the Dallas-meets-Chicago blues style of Freddie King that influenced the Vaughan brothers. While Holt's guitar prowess is a knockout punch, the real surprise of his debut is his voice, which shows that while Milligan may have been the front man in Storyville, he wasn't the only member of the band who could sing with soul and street credibility.