Today we’d like to introduce you to Gwen Holt.
Hi Gwen, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’m a full-time private music teacher and performing musician in East Nashville since 2007. I teach voice, songwriting, piano, guitar, bass, sax, harmonica and music theory from my home studio and also have 4 student rock bands, ages 10 – 17, that perform in the community at venues like The Bowery Vault, Nectar Urban Cantina, and Drifter’s BBQ. I also perform my original songs in Nashville with my band Gwen Holt & The Blue Souls — bluesy Americana swamp n soul with a swig of Janis Joplin! Check us out on YouTube! We have a live EP coming out later this year. To get in the know about upcoming gigs, please follow me on Instagram: @gwenbholt or FaceBook: Gwen Holt Music or shoot me an email from the Contact Form on my private music teaching website: gwenholtmusic.com and I’ll put you on my mailing list.
I’m singing and playing harmonica on a few songs with 80s cover band “Raygun” at The5Spot on Sat., Oct. 12 from 6 – 8pm. I’m singing a couple tunes at Dee’s Cocktail Lounge in Madison on Oct. 18 for the Chuck Berry Tribute at 9pm. And my band is performing a 40-minute set of my original songs at The Bowery Vault on Sat., Oct. 26 at 7:15 – 7:45 for the annual Halloween Ball. Here’s a sample of what to expect at the Halloween gig: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gwen+holt+bottoms+up
I moved to Nashville from Vancouver, BC, Canada in 2000 for music. I’d visited several years earlier and fell in love with the songwriting community and — being from Canada — the beautiful, warm weather! I haven’t regretted the decision for one second! I absolutely love it here! The city is full of the best musicians in the world and there’s non-stop music every night of the week in every genre imaginable. There are more live music venues per capita than anywhere in the US and currently 4.15% of the city’s population works in the music industry. But the best thing about it? The people are so nice! As in genuinely, truly warm.
When I went to college in Boston (where I graduated from Berklee College of Music), you had to be tough and walk like you owned the place to avoid being a target. After Boston, I moved to Vancouver, BC, where people were polite because it was socially expected, but that’s about as far as it went. I grew up in a small town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains of BC, so city culture was just completely foreign to me. Nashville still has that Southern hospitality and a small-town vibe and I’ve found East Nashville to be especially open and friendly. It took me a minute to get used to being called “honey” or “baby” by strangers (men and women alike) and to get used to people being too much in my personal space and being all “huggy,” but I’ve thawed out over the years and it’s been a lovely process.
When I first moved here, my goal was to get a publishing deal as a country songwriter. I had about a dozen cuts with indie artists, a couple close calls with major artists, a couple songs in indie movies, and a few successful radio jingles, but I really didn’t enjoy writing the kind of music that was being asked for at the time (bro country: bars, babes, Bibles, barbeques, trucks in mud, and formulaic thump-you-chest-values-songs about “this is who I am”).
I mostly worked day jobs in the music industry during this period: office manager at Masterfonics Mastering, editing music performance contracts at Monterey Peninsula Artists, cocktail waitressing at the Country Music Hall of Fame Lounge. But after a brush with death and a long recovery, I had lots of time to think about what’s really important to me and how I want to spend the rest of my time here on the planet. I decided to move towards teaching music privately as well as writing and performing the kind of songs I wanted purely for my own satisfaction.
I didn’t have much experience teaching, so I started by volunteering at W.O. Smith School of Music on weekends for a couple years. It was a wonderfully rewarding experience helping kids learn music that otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it. The teachers taught for free and the school was paid $0.25/lesson. I won the award for best piano teacher one year. Jan Williams School of Music in Brentwood called W.O. Smith and asked if they had a teacher they might recommend. Next thing I knew I taught there for 6 or 7 years.
After my divorce, I moved out of Berry Hill and bought my own home in East Nashville, where I started teaching from. Hard to believe that was 17 years ago — but I’m so loving the life I’ve created here! It’s just a nice balance between teaching, songwriting, recording, performing, and just being part of the amazing music community here.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
You’d think that being a Canadian citizen, it’d be pretty easy to move to the United States. But you’d be wrong. Pretty sure I filled out enough forms to make a stack several feet high, made enough trips to the immigration office to count it as my second home, and shelled out enough money in fees to have paid for a two-year college degree. And yet, shockingly, compared to people from most other countries, I actually DID have it easy. I was so grateful to Catholic Charities Immigration for helping me get through the seemingly endless maze of red tape that I started volunteering for them. I worked with a Somalian refugee family, taking them to doctor’s appointments and to the library, teaching them how use the bus system, and walking around the city while explaining how the culture is different here (eg. couples sometimes kiss in public), etc.
The grandparents lived with 3 grandchildren and a baby in a two-bedroom apartment. The children’s parents had been killed in the Sudanese genocide. It put my troubles and complaints about immigrating in perspective, to say the least. We exchanged our stories and our food. They were very kind and curious. I remember the teenage Muslim grandson and granddaughter, who grew up with very different ideas about women’s roles, were so shocked but also amazed and intrigued at how this childless, white, Canadian woman who plays a bunch of instruments and studies Buddhism was driving their multi-generational Sudanese Muslim family around Nashville showing them the ropes. I’m pretty sure none of us saw that one coming!
Although women have a lot more rights and freedoms here in North America, we still have a long way to go. It became clear when I moved here in 2000, that it wasn’t going to be easy to be taken seriously as a songwriter. At that time, it was mostly men, and they would mostly hit on me before we got anywhere close to co-writing. In an effort to be taken seriously, I’d wear a wedding ring, share that I was a Berklee grad, or that I play six instruments and/or that I’ve written hundreds of songs. That would backfire because they’d get intimidated and/or defensive. I soon realized that I had to hide my music theory knowledge because if I corrected a chord they were playing or suggested a female perspective, they’d generally get bent out of shape and that would be the end of it. It was also hard because to become part of the hot-shot gang (a boy’s club) that was going places, you had to become their drinking buddy and that was expensive, time-consuming, and just not really my thing.
I’m shocked at how many more women are in the business now though. We’re making great strides! And so are the men! The culture is so much more accepting and respectful of women in the business now as well. Also there are non-profits here now like H.O.M.E, which is a great way for musicians to network without being a barfly and groups for women musicians like the FaceBook group and in-person chapter of “Nashville Women in Music.” But there’s still a ways to go …
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a private music teacher in East Nashville, I work with people of all ages and levels. Because I teach voice, piano, guitar, bass, sax, harmonica, and songwriting, it keeps things really interesting and fresh for me, and I think that because I’m enjoying it, my students enjoy it too!
I especially love working with women to help them find their authentic voice. Women often think they have to sing really high and breathy and sexy to be successful. Or that they have to be able to do crazy, fast runs. Or that they have to sound like someone else that’s already successful. I think my most fulfilling moments are when I see the look on a woman’s face the first time she sings like “herself” or when a soft-spoken woman learns how to belt or sing with grit! So empowering!!! But I love working with all singers! It’s just so exciting to hear their progress and help them learn how to deliver lyrics in a way that makes the audience stop everything and listen.
I also love working with songwriters. It’s wonderfully fun asking the right questions that help them find their way out of songwriting corners. It’s the satisfaction of solving a puzzle. It’s that first time when a song just finally all comes together and I see that “Aha!” look on their face … Love it. I took all of the commercial songwriting classes at Berklee, as well as more music theory and composition classes than you could shake a stick at. At this point in my life, I’ve had LOTS of time to apply and explore that knowledge and apply it to my own creativity as well. I know that I was really fortunate to get to go there so it feels good to be able to pass along that knowledge to people that didn’t have that opportunity but that can really benefit from it. I work with a lot of writers who maybe just have a shortcoming in one particular area eg. transitioning from section to section or writing colorful lyrics or maybe their songs don’t have enough repetition or enough of a melodic arc. Maybe they don’t know about the golden means and how to apply it to every aspect of the song. I’ll work with them for a time, maybe a month or two and then they’re off and running. Many will come back now and then to get a little feedback or fresh perspective on a new song.
In terms of working with kids, I’m super proud of my student rock bands! Many of these kids started with me between the ages of 4 – 7 and are now 14 – 17 and some of them are playing at a pro level! It’s so fulfilling to watch them perform on stages around town now and think back to when they could barely even hold a guitar or hold a note in tune! Because I sing and play all of the rock instruments, including drums, I have a solid understanding of the function of each instrument in a band setting and can pass that along. And with decades of performing experinece under my belt, I can teach the kids the ins and outs of being in a band: how to support and encourage each other (especially when someone makes a mistake or is having a hard time on or off-stage), how to listen to the whole band (not just yourself), how to run a rehearsal, how to count a song in and cue an ending, how to write a song, how to write a set list, how to pack for a gig, how to talk between songs, perform on stage, and really engage an audience, etc.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Well, certainly AI is rapidly affecting pretty much every industry in the world, including songwriting, and the internet continues to make learning anything — including music — much more attainable. Hologram concerts continue to gain momentum. And although all of these things will have a strong impact, I believe that nothing will ever replace a live teacher and student, or a live concert with real human beings. I believe humans are wired for connection and the more we connect, the happier we are. I think we’ll always seek each other out for connection and we’ll always use music as a means of expression, communication, and cheap therapy!
Pricing:
- Music Lessons (ages 4 – 17) $40/half hour or $80/hour
- Music Lessons (ages 18+) $45/half hour or $90/hour
- Rock Band Rehearsals (2.25 hrs)/Shows $70
- Session Work (vocalist, harmonica, sax) $75-$175
- Songwriting Consulting, Preproduction, Mix-Production Feedback, Backup vocal or horn arrangements $90/hour
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gwenholtmusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gwenbholt/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gwenholtmusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@gwenholt
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/you/tracks
