Album Details

• Artist: Holly Gentry
• Album: So Much More
• Label: indie
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: mark_morton on 2013-01-23

Atlanta-bred Holly Gentry is a rare breed of musician. Although relatively young, her soulful delivery projects a blend of the road-worn, blue-collar living of Bruce Springsteen and the spirited vivacity of Emmylou Harris. In essence, she's a young body with an old soul.

SO MUCH MORE yields a potent stew of energetic, live-and-let-live country rock that has not really existed in this form since the late 1980s. While the majority of the music is blues-based, therein lies a sly flavor of pop buoyancy, like an adult who has regained the wide-eyed spiritedness of childhood.

It is the perfect foil for those who have grown weary of the carbon-filtered, Taylor Swift / Carrie Underwood manufactured-ness of the current genre. Gentry's package is 100% authentic; she believes every word she sings, and she is having a good time living her dream.

She genuinely sounds like an artist who performs for the sake of performing, and share with you some of the warmth of her life. Gentry is not without teeth or a sense of humor; "Justin Timberlake Show" tells the tale of a friend who had forgotten their roots, having "sold out faster than a Justin Timberlake show." Even when she is being spiteful, you cannot help but love her. Her voice is so effervescent that it keeps you smiling through the entire album.

With such a strong sound and the built-in potential for massive crossover audience appeal, I seriously doubt she will dwell in the underground for very long.

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