ROOTSTIME, Belgium
Darryl Holter Album Review
Reviewed by Ron Bervoerts

Darryl Holter’s music is hard to pigeon-hole.  It brings together portions of rock with country, folk, and blues tones and adds bit of pop.  He grew up in Minneapolis with the music of Bob Dylan and music scene on the West Bank of the Mississippi, and then Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Arlo Guthrie, and other folk pioneers.  But apart from playing the guitar, Holter never really made a career in music.  It was only when he moved to Los Angeles that he began to write songs that moved away from the politically charged protest songs of his idols.  Over the course of several years, Holter wrote more than 40 songs dealing with everyday, but important things, like love and lost loved ones, memories and imagination, sometimes with humor, sometimes dark.  He stopped writing new songs for a few years.  Then he decided to select about twelve of his favorite songs and make a CD. 

This debut album can be best described as incredible, all the more surprising since Holter has no professional music experience, stage experience, or performances to his credit.  Sometimes it’s the rocking sound of “Don’t Touch My Chevy” that we hear.  Sometimes it’s an atmosphere of reflection, as in “Time and Space” with its wonderful pedal steel guitar work.  “Living on the Edge” creates an atmosphere of loneliness in the big city.  “Should Have Seen It Coming” benefits from the great, Knofler-like slide guitar work of Tim Young and Greg Leisz.