Biography
Will Holt sustained an enduring presence across multiple musical realms over five decades, moving fluidly between idioms rather than remaining anchored to any single one. Born in Portland, Maine, in 1929, he began piano studies at age six in 1935 and soon added singing along with formal voice instruction. While attending school in Exeter, New Hampshire, he developed parallel interests in the guitar and traditional repertoire. In the late 1940s he trained under Richard Dyer-Bennett at the School for American Minstrels in Aspen, Colorado, where Rey de la Torre served as his guitar instructor.
A lengthy European journey in 1950 allowed him to gather folk material from various regions. Military service intervened when he was drafted, resulting in two and a half years with the Air Force, after which he launched his professional career in 1954. Television and nightclub appearances featuring folk material followed quickly. By the middle of the decade he had performed at the Crystal Palace in St. Louis and the Village Vanguard in New York City while cutting two albums for Stinson Records—A Will Holt Concert and Pills to Purge Melancholy.
His programs drew on traditional songs from widely scattered sources, among them the European and British numbers “Three Jovial Huntsmen” and the Finnish “Kesailta,” the latter encountered during a stop in Helsinki, as well as the cowboy standard “The Streets of Laredo.” Rather than relying on conventional folk instrumentation, he assembled ensembles of leading jazz players and encouraged improvisation; his command of the material also enabled him to discuss its origins with authority. Throughout the latter half of the 1950s he was recognized chiefly as a folk performer, having composed two enduring pieces—“Lemon Tree,” already widely known before Peter, Paul & Mary recorded their version, and “Raspberries, Strawberries,” which became a hit for the Kingston Trio.
An unanticipated shift occurred in the 1960s when Holt joined singer Martha Schlamme for an off-Broadway presentation titled The World of Kurt Weill in Song. The production achieved both critical and commercial success, introducing him to a fresh audience drawn to Weill’s Berlin-inspired works. That phase further confirmed his standing among the most versatile musicians to emerge from the post-World War II folk movement. Holt died of Alzheimer’s disease in Los Angeles on May 31, 2015, at the age of 86.
A lengthy European journey in 1950 allowed him to gather folk material from various regions. Military service intervened when he was drafted, resulting in two and a half years with the Air Force, after which he launched his professional career in 1954. Television and nightclub appearances featuring folk material followed quickly. By the middle of the decade he had performed at the Crystal Palace in St. Louis and the Village Vanguard in New York City while cutting two albums for Stinson Records—A Will Holt Concert and Pills to Purge Melancholy.
His programs drew on traditional songs from widely scattered sources, among them the European and British numbers “Three Jovial Huntsmen” and the Finnish “Kesailta,” the latter encountered during a stop in Helsinki, as well as the cowboy standard “The Streets of Laredo.” Rather than relying on conventional folk instrumentation, he assembled ensembles of leading jazz players and encouraged improvisation; his command of the material also enabled him to discuss its origins with authority. Throughout the latter half of the 1950s he was recognized chiefly as a folk performer, having composed two enduring pieces—“Lemon Tree,” already widely known before Peter, Paul & Mary recorded their version, and “Raspberries, Strawberries,” which became a hit for the Kingston Trio.
An unanticipated shift occurred in the 1960s when Holt joined singer Martha Schlamme for an off-Broadway presentation titled The World of Kurt Weill in Song. The production achieved both critical and commercial success, introducing him to a fresh audience drawn to Weill’s Berlin-inspired works. That phase further confirmed his standing among the most versatile musicians to emerge from the post-World War II folk movement. Holt died of Alzheimer’s disease in Los Angeles on May 31, 2015, at the age of 86.
Albums
