Biography
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Donnie Barren Holtzinger served as lead guitarist for the Los Angeles rock band City Lights, which built a following across the regional club circuit. He launched his solo work in 1982 and issued the single “I Love My Cat's Meow” under the name Donnie Barren early the next year. Although the track became a minor regional hit, limited promotion and distribution hampered its reach. Holtzinger then returned to the studio to record enough additional material to complete an album built around the single. While shopping the finished project to labels, he grew fascinated with the commercial mechanics of the music business. He therefore shifted course, earned an M.B.A. from Harvard, and accepted a position at Proctor & Gamble before moving to Microsoft; neither role involved music. The album consequently remained unreleased for more than twenty years until it appeared in 2005 as I Love My Cat's Meow! under his full name, Donnie Barren Holtzinger. A subsequent stint as lead guitarist for the Seattle-based band Indigo Soul, during which he contributed to their album More Punch Than Punch Line, revived his interest in recording. He reentered the studio as a solo artist and released the instrumental album Freedom. The track “Can't You See the World Through My Eyes?,” cut in 1983 with the other songs that comprise I Love My Cat's Meow!, later appeared in an episode from Season 2 of Netflix's GLOW.
Albums
