Holly O’Reilly beats the blues, gets her new album out the door.
Holly O’Reilly thinks that if a toddler enjoys your songs, you’ve got a good piece of work on your hands. Then again, her 3-year-old son only likes one track on her new CD.
“Kids crave structure – kids really glom onto that,” said the singer-songwriter and mother of two. “It takes a special and devoted type of music lover to be able to not demand a bridge in a song. And I prefer a song structure that’s atypical.”
O’Reilly finished her new CD, “Gifts and Burdens,” during a period of personal transition.
And without getting too wrapped up in musical technicality, one could regard the 10 months between the album’s completion and its release to the public as a bridge of sorts. But O’Reilly isn’t necessarily going for that.
“I feel like this is a beginning more than a progression,” she said.
Not too long ago, O’Reilly – who formerly recorded under the name Holly Figueroa – decided to quit music altogether. Constant touring and three years of work on “Gifts and Burdens” had left her with a sense of discontentment that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
She also felt creatively dissociated from the album, a bittersweet bluegrass and blues-infused meditation that she released independently. She did recognize the business sense in getting the album out the door; she’d collected 600 pre-orders during its making. But for some reason, she wouldn’t listen to it.
Then there was the matter of Bainbridge, where she and her family had lived since 2000 but which felt like a vacation destination between tour dates. So she made a grand announcement and dove into domestic life.
Not making music but frantically juggling CD release logistics and the business of raising two children, she felt trapped and depressed. Pregnancy and indifference had sent her weight to 290 pounds, which resulted in exhaustion and chronic health problems.
Miserable in her body and looking for a way to feel healthy and human again, O’Reilly decided “as a last-ditch effort” to undergo lap-band surgery. The choice wasn’t cosmetic, she just wanted to be able to walk without a cane.
The surgery “was pretty much a snap,” she said. The challenge came afterward as she learned how to modify not just her eating habits, but her perspective. She had to learn “how to change in increments without everything being black and white.”
Shortly after the surgery, O’Reilly and her husband separated. She now understands her detachment from the album – she didn’t want to face the chronicle of her 15-year relationship’s decline.
She looked back and thought, “Crap, how could I not know? It all came through in the music.”
Post-separation, O’Reilly hit a severe emotional low from which she emerged only when a close friend suggested perhaps it was time to return to music. She scheduled tour dates and began promoting the album.
Between fulfilling orders and getting the CD out to radio stations and promoters, O’Reilly managed to unload the first run, which she printed while she and her husband were still together.
A second run meant she could make a few tweaks for the commercial release: fix some typos, create new cover art, and update her name. The promotional CD says Figueroa.
O’Reilly debuted “Gifts and Burdens” at Seattle’s Triple Door two weeks ago. She thinks the venue is gorgeous and musician-friendly but that the stage feels a little too big. She’s still more at home in small spaces; her favorite gigs are “house parties” where 20 people show up at the door with potluck.
This weekend, she’ll go similarly low-key for an in-the-round reunion at the Island Music Guild Hall with Austin-based Datri Bean and Seattle-based Kym Tuvim, both friends. O’Reilly says she appreciates the level of discernment among typical IMG audience members, and she likes the hall.
“You should see some of the holes I’ve played in recently,” she said.
Right now, O’Reilly says she’s striking a better balance between work and home life. She admits that at times, “It’s all tension. No matter where I am, I feel like I should be somewhere else.”
But she’s learned how to ask for help. She hired an au pair to look after the kids during the week, and she said that she and her husband, who still lives on Bainbridge, now communicate about parenting better than they ever did when they lived together.
O’Reilly says she sometimes yearns to live in a major country music center like Nashville or Austin, where she can walk into a gig and witness a musician she’s admired for ages sit down, listen to her set and talk with her a little.
But Bainbridge’s great schools and the weather from May to September are keeping her on the island for now.
Except that she might not be here that much, with tour dates fast filling up in Texas, New York and Las Vegas, and even on a cruise.
“Now I’m tired,” she said, “but for a good reason. I go and go and go.”
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Power trio
Holly, Datri and Kym perform in the round at 7:30 p.m. April 7 at the IMG Hall. Tickets are $10 at the door. See www.islandmusic.org or www.hollyoreilly.com.
