* Mark Holt & Kimberlee Holt Tully.. to perform "Live" on Idaho2News CBS DayBreak.. Wednesday November 19th, 2003.. 6:00 am KBCI - TV CBS Affiliate Channel # 2 Boise, Idaho *mark & kimberlee will perform 2 songs between 6am & 7am.. Subject: Mark Holt / by: Heather Frye of the tribune Music Defying Description.. Clarkston Songwriters Style Doesn't Fit Under Any Of Industry's Conventional Labels the following is an article about Mark Holt written by Heather Frye photos by Kyle Mills the following article about Mark Holt ran as the A&E Cover Story, in the Lewiston Morning Tribune, Friday September 26th, 2003 Lewiston, Idaho Fitting into some genre, some pre-cut musical category might have made the last 28 years of Mark Holt's life a little easier. "I've been told that by record execs and talent buyers," says Holt, who plays a set tonight and Saturday at the Moose River Grill in Kamiah. "But I always kind of thought of that as selling out." "The music industry likes artists that fit the labels music stores hang over their bins", says Holt, 39, of Clarkston, pulling his guitar from its red velvet-lined case. In cowboy boots, jeans, a mock turtleneck and dress coat, he looks as eclectic as the mix of music he plays. Relaxing on the patio behind his Clarkston home he tweaks the tuning keys on his guitar and picks out short, nameless tunes while he thinks. "I'm sure if I just played straight Bluegrass or Western or Lounge I would be easier to market... but to me it makes more sense if you can put your music in four or five different bins." When Holt was a teenager, a talent scout took him under his wing, he explains a little later. The man took him backstage at Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard and Ernest Tubb concerts and gave him a bit of advice he never forgot. "He told me 'Mark, you have to be something different' and I kind of took that to heart," he says. "I want people to know that was me when they hear me. I don't want to sound like any-body else." To demonstrate he kicks into a rootsy ballad written about his wife of 10 years, Angela. Keeping time with his boot heel he pulls his voice from a high, Willie Nelson warble down to a gritty Merle Haggard snarl. On his first album "Acoustically Native," released this summer with his sister and long-time music partner Kimberlee Holt Tully, he switches easily between Marty Robbins ballads, a folksy medley of two Frank Sinatra classics, impecable cowboy yodeling on Tex Owen's "Cattle Call," and his own original songs. Holt was 12 when he was first enticed to the stage with his guitar for a 4-H banquet. "I played Merle Haggard's ' I Take A Lot of Pride In What I Am,' because I do and I guess that's where it started," Holt says. The Yakima, Washington, native joined a music school shortly after. The school later put him in a band it formed to showcase students and sell lessons to others. The school went under, but the band stayed together, changing its name from the JuDale Jr. Staff Band to the Rising Sons. "And we played every wedding and harvest festival and sugar beet thing in Central Washington" In the 1980's Holt fell in love with bluegrass, "10 years too early", joining up with his percussion-player sister and others to play country and roots music. "No, it hasn't been easy", But being an original has taken Holt to some interesting places in addition to the regular gigs at the West's Ski Resorts, Lodges, Lounges, and Bars & Grills. In the late 1980's it took him to Owensboro, Kentucky, to play for the International Bluegrass Music Awards & Trade Show, where he met Alison Krauss' producer Bil VornDick, who 12 years later would help Mark produce and cut his own album "Acoustically Native." It has also taken him to Fort Worth, Texas, to play for the International Western Music Expo. In the mid 1980's it go him and his band a gig as the opening act for Tammy Wynette, and a surprise visit. "Were sitting in our dressing room before the show and in walks Tammy," Holt remembers. "She wanted to know if we knew the bluegrass classic 'Rocky Top', by the Osborne Brothers. We said yes, we would be glad to do it for her. She laughed and said, ' Well I wanted to do it tonight, and I wanted to make sure you guys weren't.' "We all had a good laugh, and told her she was the boss, go for it." Last year it landed him on the Trail. At the behest of the head wrangler of the International Horseback Trail Ride, Holt and his sister became the musicians for the South Dakota leg of the Riding For America 9-11 benefit ride. The group rode from Alberta, Canada, to the Atlantic shore and the Statue of Liberty to raise money for the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. For the ride Holt and his sister wrote "Cowboy Up", a western flavored remembrance of the Sept. 11 tragedies and set it to music in about a week. "You know, the ride has been over for more than a year now and I still get all kinds of interest in it," says Holt, who included the song as the last track on the album. As for the Future, " a little success would be nice", Holt says. He sees a bright spot in the rise in popularity of the Americana genre. "It is sort of a catch-all category for the roots musicians that play rock, bluegrass players that include percussion in their sound and country stars that prefer acoustic," Holt says. But it is enjoying a new popularity and that is encouraging musicians like Holt, who don't fit the music industry's molds. "There is a whole side of the music industry that is going back to that". In the interim, Holt plans to do what he has always done-- play music his own way. That, and enjoy his much-loved cabin in the woods outside of Weippe, Idaho, work and watch his daughter Kenydra grow up. As for dreams of Nashville, New York or Hollywood, he simply says, "Nah, I'm a Northwestern guy." Heather Frye, Lewiston Morning Tribune * Mark & Kimberlee.. received 3 ( triple ) Best Western Nominations by the.. Academy of Western Artists in 2003.. Best Duo/Group, Best Rising Stars, Best Western Male Performer * Acoustically Native.. was recorded @ Mountainside Audio Labs.. Nashville, Tennessee * Mark & Kimberlee.. are produced by multi-grammy winning.. "Bil VornDick" "Midnight Rider" with Scott Vestal on 5-string banjo Prime Cuts of Bluegrass # 56 www.primecutsofbluegrass.com "Why Me Lord" a gospel selection Prime Cuts of Bluegrass # 57 www.primecutsofbluegrass.com "El Paso City" a tribute to Marty Robbins Acoustic Rainbow Radio Sampler # 14 www.acousticrainbow.com Mark Holt & Kimberlee Holt Tully E# darkhorse@orofino-id.com E# nativehorses@yakima-wa.com _________________ CD: * Acoustically Native.. Artist: * Mark Holt & Kimberlee Holt Tully with special guests: Stuart Duncan.. fiddle & mandolin Mark Fain.. bass fiddle Randy Kohrs.. dobro Scott Vestal.. 5-string banjo Pete Huttlinger.. acoustic & gut string guitars Tim Tappan.. piano Kathy Chiavola.. harmony vocals produced by multi-grammy winning: Bil VornDick Recorded @ Mountainside Audio Labs.. Nashville, Tennessee including: * Midnight Rider.. * Why Me Lord.. * El Paso City: a tribute to Marty Robbins.. * bonus track: Cowboy Up / "Riding For America".. www.geocities.com/wpwhra/cowboy.html www.wwnfsept11.com/RidingForAmerica.htm www.keepingapace.com/blogarchives/temporary/remembering_911.php mark holt by Kyle Mills Lewiston Morning Tribune