Local singer-songwriter Holly Benton finds emotional outlet in music

Just over three years ago, Holly Benton was an avid soul, blues and country fan, but not necessarily a musician.

"I was simply a shower singer," she said. "That was basically it."

Aside from the shower, she sang karaoke sometimes and always sang while doing her carpentry work. One day a client at a winery heard her singing while she worked and confronted her.

"I always sing when I work," she explained. "And so they asked me if I had ever performed."

They were so impressed they invited her to try her hand at playing for people at the winery. Benton had about a year of piano lessons at age 9 but since had developed her musical talents by ear, picking up tricks and ideas from her idols, including Ray Charles, Patsy Cline and blues powerhouse Etta James.

She said she wasn't sure, heading into the first gig, but a genuine love of singing helped her decide to go through with it.

"I love singing for people," she said. "I just want as many people to hear my music as possible, and hopefully they like it."

As it turned out, they loved it -- and so did she. She said the experience was liberating. All of a sudden, she had a creative and emotional outlet.

The cover of Holly Benton's newly released CD, "Real." (Submitted photo)

"I'm not an extremely emotional person, but with music, I can be," she said. "Those things that I put down [in day-to-day situations], I can let go of them through music."

She then turned to songwriting, and now, three years after that chance opportunity, she's ready to release her debut album.

She says between herself and her songwriting partner, Kevin Engert, the songs came easily, for the most part.

"Sometimes, things come together just like it's meant to be," she said. "A couple songs were like that, like it was just there waiting and all I had to do was sit down and write it."

But while writing was quick, the recording process took months.

"It was recorded in Nashville, so we had to do it maybe two songs at a time," she said. "Drive down, get as much as we could done and come back."

And to make it more time-consuming, Benton doesn't use any voice-correction software, such as AutoTune.

"I don't do that," she said. "I want the listeners to hear what they'd be hearing if they came to the show."

Her integrity and dedication to being an effective live performer have gotten her some attention locally and elsewhere.

She provided the entertainment for a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Jason Smith. In a few weeks, she's playing a few shows in Greensboro, North Carolina.

"That's the thing that's touched me the most about this [experience]," she said, "meeting people who don't want anything from you; they just want to be around you because they like the things you're doing."

But her favorite part, she said, is definitely performing.

"I want people to feel it," she said. "That's one of the best things about being a songwriter. When you're up there with a song you wrote, and you can see people shaking their heads, or you get that one person with a tear, that's the best part."

tgraef@semissourian.com

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