Track Listing

1. Intro
2. Hard
3. Hold On
4. How It Is
5. No One Can
6. Scary
7. Interlude
8. Red
9. White From Here
10. To The Ground
11. Running
12. You'll Always Have Me
13. Reprise
14. How It Is (radio edit)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #534859 in Music
• Released on: 2002-11-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Album Description
Holly was able to fund the recording of her new record, "How It Is" solely through pre-orders from fans on her extensive mailing list. "How It Is" was produced and recorded by Evan Brubaker (Laura Love/Darryl Purpose/David LaMotte), and Troy Glessner (Joel RL Phelps/Sky Cries Mary) at Spectre Studios in Seattle, WA. The record is graced by Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel), Jerry Marotta (Indigo Girls), Danny Barnes, Dan Tyack, Sean Halley, and Skip Peri. "How It Is" is the follow up to last years "Dream in Red", which received great reviews from national, weekly and daily press all over the country. Sometimes sweet, sometimes scary, always lyrically deep and affecting, "How It Is" is a study on the levels of grief, and each song moves through the levels without reservation.

Los Angeles Entertainment Today, Paul Anderson, October 2002
"…'How It Is' slays any big company songster product that has been coughed up over the past 12 months."

About the Artist
Recently featured on NPR’s "All Things Considered", native Ohioan Holly Figueroa started playing guitar in July 1999, when during her first tour, her guitar player broke his hip while pitching the tent before their first festival show…in front of ten thousand people. Not knowing a thing about playing guitar, she learned three chords in three days and finished her tour by herself. In her first year solo on the acoustic music circuit, she was wowing national audiences in listening rooms from The Bitter End in New York City, to Club Passim in Boston, to the Tractor Tavern in Seattle and Genghis Cohen in Los Angeles. Seattle based Figueroa has toured extensively throughout the US, greeting fans everywhere with her refreshing style of hybrid folk and blues, usually with her seven year old daughter in tow.

Customer Reviews

Smoky, Impassioned Voice
from BlueJeanOnline.com

by Mary Zachmeyer, Teen Editor

It took me three tries to get this singer and songwriter's name typed in correctly to track down her web site. But it was worth the frustration because from the first short track on Holly's CD, 'How it is', I was intrigued. The mystery grew when the second track hit, and I heard her voice.

Figueroa sounds like a healthy mix of Alanis Morrisette and a touch of the Cranberries-she has the smoky, impassioned voice most singers can only dream of. Her song writing talents, too, are of a caliber that even popular songwriters have trouble achieving.

Figueroa's lyrics are so simple, but when mixed with her powerful voice and the undercurrent of instruments ranging from an electric guitar to an acoustic or a banjo, it just overwhelms with the blues feeling that listeners can be sure to enjoy.

Take, for example, the lyrics from the third track, "Hold On": "I promise I'll be worth it someday/If you can hold on/ We struggle with the lessons but/We are not holy we are human and fallible we are/ Small and petty/But lessons are lessons and we learn from them or repeat our mistakes." The sixth track on the CD, "Scary" is another amazing song: "I only give you a little bit in doses/But I haven't got the dosage right cause you keep spitting me out/Does it really scare you so much/I didn't do anything you didn't ask for/Did I take in the air with such force that you wished I would stop breathing?"

Interestingly enough, this CD release was funded solely by pre-sales from Figueroa's fans and her grassroots organizations, and it's easy to hear and understand why.

Copyright 2003 BlueJeanOnline.com

An artist I cannot recommend enough.
She is truly a remarkable songwriter. "How it Is" showcases her amazing songwriting abilities coupled with her breathtaking vocals. A combination that makes this CD a true success!