Holly

Early this year, an aquaintance introduced me to the music of Eva Cassidy. Eva was a remarkable songstress who's career and life were cut short in 1996 by melanoma at the age of 33. I bought some of her music via Amazon mp3 downloads and really enjoy listening to it. I especially liked her cover of the Sting classic "Fields of Gold".

Wondering if a video of Eva performing "Fields of Gold" existed, I went searching on YouTube. I didn't find the Eva video I was looking for, but instead landed on this cover version.

I honestly think my jaw fell open as I listened to this extraordinary 17 year old from the UK perform her version of the song. I browsed her YouTube channel and found I liked many of the 25 videos she had posted, so I subscribed to her channel. At that time I think she had around 200 subscribers. Currently her subscriber list is closing in on 1000.

Her name is Holly Kirby, and she is a high school student living in the UK. She is studying music and plays several instruments. She also has an artistic eye for photography and video production that you'll observe in her later videos, but I think her greatest strength is in her vocal performances. She is a big fan of Loreena McKennitt and Enya, among others. You can certainly hear their influences in her music. In fact, at the age of 14 she appeared as Enya singing "Orinoco Flow" on a British television show. Holly's musical taste seems to lean toward the 'Celtic Woman' genre, but she is equally adept performing pop styles like this KT Tunstall cover, or this original song.

Speaking of original songs, about the time I started following her progress, Holly began a collaboration with a gifted lyricist here in the U.S. Together they have produced some astounding original music:


I think they have a great future as a songwriting team. If she gets the right opportunities, I think Holly has the potential to make it big in the music world, but that's a big IF. There are probably thousands of musical talents that never get the recognition they deserve. Holly is very level headed about this, and has expressed in her comments that while a breakthrough career in music would be wonderful, she is currently content to continue her studies and enjoy her life as a teenager.

Recently, Holly celebrated over a year on YouTube and posted her 50th video appropriately called "Who Knows Where the Time Goes", a cover of the 1968 Sandy Denny classic. The video includes clips of herself growing up, but it is her rendition of the song that makes this one of her best performances yet.

If you don't have one yet, I recommend you create a YouTube account, and then subscribe to this young lady so you can watch her progress. I think you will see a star in the making.