Biography
Holly Tannen roots her music in traditions of folklore and magic. Although she performs numerous traditional folk songs drawn from England, Scotland, France, and the United States, her original compositions have drawn greater notice. These include “Online Romance,” “Song of the Suburban Shaman,” and “Lily of the Net,” pieces she states were composed while channeling entities from the “half-astral plane.” Her skill at moving between these realms has turned her concerts into lively, animated events. The Oakland Tribune characterized one such performance by observing that she is “a master at taking a small club and turning it into a magical forest.” Tannen began studying magic in 1980 and was initiated as a princess in 1984. In 1988 she enrolled in folklore studies at the University of California at Berkeley, completing a master’s thesis on the ballads of the nomadic travelling people of Scotland. Between 1989 and 1996 she served as associate professor of anthropology at the College of the Redwoods in Mendocino while also lecturing on contemporary magic at the University of California in Berkeley and at Yale University. In February 2000 she premiered the one-woman show Practical Alchemy at the Helen Schoeni Theater in Mendocino, drawing on the life and writings of French existential poet Arthur Rimbaud.
Albums
