text and photography: ed verosky
I’m standing in the mens’ restroom, camera in hand, inside Momo’s nightclub in Austin, TX. The door is open, exposing the lavatory to the narrow walk-through that serves as a passage from the outside deck into the club’s booth seating area.
I don’t really care that some guy is in there wondering what I’m taking pictures of. It’s the only way I can get a full-length shot of the girl standing on the other side of the doorway, up against the red painted brick wall opposite me. She’s holding a Corona. I’m glad she’s game for one last set of pictures. We’ve been shooting at a different location for a couple of hours already, and I know she didn’t expect to continue the shoot at the club. I tell her this is the last picture, “I promise.”
Just a few minutes before, Tara Holloway was taking it all in as we sat on the steps of Momo’s deck. From there, you’ve got a relatively good view of the stage and can hear the music without it being on top of you. Kacy Crowley was doing a solo acoustic set for the small late-afternoon crowd. Holloway sat jotting notes into her red Moleskine. “I’m not copying her lyrics. Really, I’m not!,” she assured me with a playful grin.
And she has no reason to. Like Crowley, Holloway writes from a very honest and open place. It’s so real you can feel it. It’s so good, you want to hear it over and over.
You have a great laugh. It’s one of the first things people think of when they think of you.
It’s something that people can’t help but to mock actually! hahHAhHa! They mean it affectionately, but it happens alot where I laugh, and then someone else does the whole Count Dracula thing. Is that what I sound like? Laughing is the best thing ever… hahahHAhhahha!
Your voice is often compared to some of the great female vocalists for its strength, texture, and heartfelt power? You know what I’m talking about. How do you feel about those comparisons?
I feel GREAT about those comparisons! Thanks Ed! Women in music will easily always be compared to one another, and really all music is like that. People want to name it, when they hear it. It’s just about communicating a feeling, when you compare. I do it!
You mentioned Howlin Wolf as a major influence. Can you talk about that. How were you introduced to his music?
Vinyl. That’s how i got into Howlin Wolf and alot of my early influences come from my Daddio’s record collection. I really got into the blues when I was 16 [1996]. It didn’t matter that none of my friends ever thought twice about a turntable, I did.
My dad was always giving me shit for listening to everything on vinyl. He figures it’s a saving grace to record it on tape, the first listen. But I had a love for dropping that needle and listening to the crackles. Still do.
Yeah my dad would come home after a Saturday morning out record hunting, he’d open my door a hair (I was always still sleeping by noon, when he’d be arriving home with what gold he found), and he’d yell from the kitchen, so excited, “Kid! Listen to this!” And he’d be blasting the new records so I could hear.
Where do you play locally, in Ottawa? What’s that like?
I play EVERYWHERE in Ottawa. There are some really great legendary places to play in and around Ottawa. Each with a different vibe. Honestly, some gigs are just to keep my head above water. These are called “cover gigs” hahahHHA! But the original shows are special. ▲