Flying back from Malaysia I was reading the latest issue of the French rock magazine, “Rock & Folk,” and I read a good interview with two of the hottest young bands around, The Shades and The Parisians. Of course, it was no surprise to me that at the end of the article, Hugo from The Shades had this to say when asked what needed to be done to have a bigger rock scene in France today: “You need to have more guys like Earle Holmes, who started us out at the Shebeen.”
That was basically how the story finished. A paragraph or two earlier, Stevan of The Parisians, had also mentioned Earle as a catalyst.
A typical Earle pose at the open mic.
I decided that I would create a section on this blog for articles I have written that have some relevance to my musical journey, and another page that would have book excerpts from stuff I’m working on, again of relevance mostly to the musical journey. So the first article I’m putting up is my article all about Earle Holmes.
And, oh yeah, I’m going to play at his open mic at the Mecano tonight, a nice return home after the two week adventure in Australia and Malaysia. Earle’s open mic has been my favorite since I began doing these open mics, and it was, in fact, the one that got me hooked – it was the second I did after Shanghai 2008 – and it was thanks to Earle’s enthusiasm and the cool people who attended his Monday evenings, that I could not ever again consider ceasing to attend. (Well, outside extenuating circumstances….)