Sitting in his studio behind his house in Dallas, Chris Holt is as easygoing in person as he is hosting his weekly online, all-request concerts. Beginning when the pandemic took hold, Holt’s concerts have become therapeutic treatment to music lovers trapped at home because of COVID-19. “Frankly, I thought I was going to lose my house,” says Holt, who stopped making a living as a musician at the same time his wife was laid off from her job. “But the audience has been there each week.”
Holt has been part of such seminal Dallas bands as Sorta, the Slack and his current band, the Bastards of Soul, but he got his real break a few years ago when he was hired to play guitar in Don Henley’s touring band. Because of the Henley connection, Holt has also gotten gigs playing with Joe Walsh, James Taylor, Ringo Starr and the Doobie Brothers.
But once the gigs stopped, Holt decided to invest all his creative energy into these all-request shows, where he plays everything from Dylan and the Stones to lesser-known acts such as Calexico and Husker Du.
Holt recently completed his 50th concert — doing only songs from 1971, songs that also turned 50. “I’ll keep doing these as long as I’m having fun,” Holt says, “and right now, they’re a lot of fun.”
