Meeting the Band

Photo by Brady Hess

A restless sort of soul always searching for some kind of salvation in new opportunities in new towns, it’s no wonder Jeremy Holan eventually turned to the ways of Woody Guthrie.

A native of Norfolk, Neb., Holan comes from working-class roots. “My dad worked at a steel mill and mom does hair at an old folk’s home,” he said sitting around the living room with his fellow Travelling Mercies in his Dundee home. “Sort of living that life I think creates a sense of empathy with those type of people.”

Holan didn’t pick up a guitar until his mid-20s. But, as many people who become enamored by the every-person honesty and literary wit of Woody Guthrie’s songs, he was inspired to begin writing and recording songs on his own. A handful of basement tapes later, he started appearing at local open mike nights, where he met the people who now make up the rest of the group: Daniel Dean Leonard on drums, Eric Anthony Elsworth (aka “Vern”) on lead guitar), Cassandra Margret Brostad (“Cass Fifty”) on bass and George Anton Prescott Jr., who fills in for Vern when necessary.

Now, at 32, Holan is fronting his very first band. But there’s a bit more to the story, because one would assume that a rookie 32-year-old playing songs wouldn’t have much more to offer than a heap of folk chords and maybe some Cat Stevens covers. Folk chords, yes.

Butchering “Father and Son,” no. Rather, his original songs dig shallow graves for unlucky travelers and restless homebodies, burying their strife with his matter-of-fact baritone and packing down their last breaths of God-fearing air with vaporous dark humor.

Yes, Holan has lived a life that’s taken him to Los Angeles, where he pursued any sort of work in the film industry, and back to the Midwest, working odd job after odd job after odd job.

As all the Travelling Mercies gathered around a television where a home-recording of their recent performance at O’Leaver’s Pub reached its peak when drummer Leonard smashed his head on a xylophone in chaotic ecstasy (bleeding ensued), they seemed convinced that the music they created together brought on some sort of communal wholeness to their lives that otherwise wouldn’t exist – brief satiation for a roomful of restless souls. All this as Holan sits inside during the middle of a frozen December afternoon wearing pajamas, a bathrobe and slippers, a cup of coffee steady in one hand, and, as soon as the interview ends, a suddenly-appearing tobacco pipe in the other.

They all stand up, save for Leonard glued to a computer, and migrate outside.

Jeremy, I remember frequenting open mike nights at the Saddle Creek Bar and the Barley Street Tavern a year or so ago and hearing you play some of the songs solo.
Jeremy: That’s about when I started.
And it was just you and Daniel after that. Then you brought Cassandra in?
Jeremy: Then we played a couple shows, maybe.
Daniel: Jeremy bought my drum set for me, so I wouldn’t even be playing drums right now if it wasn’t for Jeremy.
Jeremy: That’s true.
Daniel: So I like Jeremy a little bit.

Why’d he buy you a drum set?
Daniel: Why? So I’d play with him.
Jeremy: At the time I had money.
Cassandra: What’s that like?
Jeremy: I dunno – I can’t remember.

I read on your Web site, there’s a quote that states: “A common man searching for a common song.” Can you explain what that’s all about?
Jeremy: When I first started doing this, I was listening to – I mean I’m a pretty big Guthrie fan. I guess I kind of wanted to do something in that vein, you know kind of storytelling. I really don’t know how to write songs except for things that are sort of character-driven.

Since your open mike days, playing with a band has kind of opened the music up a lot – as apposed to the more, “Dust Bowl” acoustic songwriting thing.
Jeremy: Yeah, that’s what these guys bring. If it was just me, obviously it would be a lot folkier. And a lot (of songs) are like that, but then with Daniel, who’s crazy, he kid of brings, well –
Daniel: What do I bring?
Jeremy: Some chaos. Compared to these guys, I have no musical training, no talent. It’s just nice to have that experience up there to help me. I didn’t start playing until late, just a few years ago.

Is that when you picked up the guitar and started writing songs?
Jeremy: Yeah. And then I did an open mike last year for the first time and then I just kept writing songs.
Daniel: And recorded them in your basement; there’s a lot of good stuff.

The band is pretty new and fresh, what do you hope to do with it, Jeremy?
Jeremy: This is what I’d like to do (play music). I spent a lot of time just wandering and not knowing what I wanted to do. After college I moved to L.A. for a couple years. That was an awful experience.

What did you go to college for?
Jeremy: I went to UNL. I majored in English and minored in education and film studies. I took a semester off, I was going to be an English teacher, and then I just hated it, the classes, and I knew I was too young to be teaching people that were just a few years younger than me. I took a semester off to pour concrete, then I went back, finished up my degree and got a film studies minor.

Is that why you went to L.A., to pursue the film thing? What did you want to do in the film industry?
Jeremy: I didn’t really know. I just wanted to be involved in something. I hated L.A. It seemed like everybody there wanted to know what you could do for them. It was all about image, what kind of car you drove or who you knew. Nobody I met really cared about film or art; it was just so vacuous. God.

I interviewed three of you two weeks ago for the Underwater Dream Machine Meeting the Band, you all are very involved with many projects…
Cassandra: It’s true.
Eric: We’re running out of things to say.

Well, how does playing with the Travelling Mercies differ?
Cassandra: It’s just interesting how you play differently with the same people with a different songwriter. Like George sounds different playing with us than (his other group) Platte River Rain.

What do you play in the Mercies, George?
George: Shot glasses, mostly. (They all laugh.) I’m mostly playing slide guitar but I play some banjo and I think I play the standard guitar on one song.

And you kind of started with the band fill in for Eric, right?
George: I practiced with them a couple times and actually played with them once.

Any Travelling Mercies recordings in the works?
Cassandra: Yeah, we’re working with Django (Greenblatt-Seay) a little bit. We’re kind of looking at doing kind of some live stuff combined with some studio stuff combined with some split-track stuff.
Jeremy: I have like two or three groups of songs that I think would work together, so we need to get some sort of album together.
Cassandra: It’s just a matter of time.