Soul food: Holmes Brothers pour emotions into album after health scare

By Diana Nollen

The dark clouds of illness have led The Holmes Brothers on their most personal musical journey, “Feed My Soul.”

The rockin' gospel blues trio have filled their latest CD with the kind of soul-searching songs that arise when staring mortality in the face. Titles like “Something is Missing,” “Fair Weather Friend” and “Edge of the Ledge” share space with “Put My Foot Down” and “Living Well is the Best Revenge.” Some are tinged with anger but most are wrapped in the love of lives well lived.

“Wendell and I wrote most of the songs during his illness,” older brother Sherman Holmes, 70, says by phone from the home where the brothers grew up in Saluda, Va., a savanna area right off Chesapeake Bay, with “light, sandy soil and a lot of pines.”

Younger brother Wendell, 66, who lives in a Baltimore suburb, has won his battle with bladder cancer, diagnosed in 2008. He and Sherman are back on the road with their brother-in-spirit, Popsy Dixon, 67, who lives about a mile from Sherman's place. They'll rattle the rafters at CSPS in Cedar Rapids at 8 p.m. Wednesday (5/4/10).

They're practically regulars on the Eastern Iowa music scene, playing in the area nearly every year since 2002.

“People seem to be receptible to our music,” bass player Sherman Holmes says with a chuckle. “My agent sends us back to places that seem to enjoy us.”

He's been playing professionally since 1954 and hooked up with his guitar-playing brother in the early '60s. They formed The Sevilles in 1963, which lasted for three years, then met drummer Dixon at a New York gig in 1967. They continued to play in various bands until forming their trio in 1979 and becoming a staple on the New York City blues scene.

They pretty much flew under the mainstream radar until signing with Rounder Records in 1989. Their early albums caught the industry's attention, but the gospel-infused “Speaking in Tongues,” released on the Alligator label in 2001, caught everyone else's attention.

Invitations came from David Letterman, the CBS Saturday Early Show and National Public Radio shows, along with articles in Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and other major papers from coast to coast. Talk show gigs, blues awards and positive press have been coming ever since.

While Sherman Holmes says the wait for widespread acclaim was “sort of frustrating,” he adds it was “better to come late than never.”

He and the others don't plan to stop anytime soon.

“We all fear retirement,” he says. “Not so much ‘fear' it as we don't want it. We want to keep going as long as we can. If people still accept me and we do good shows, that would be fine. The minute we feel we're not up to par, then we'll retire.”

Wendell's illness threw them all a curve.

“It was scary to realize how helpless you are,” Sherman Holmes says. “I couldn't help him other than give him moral support. I'm used to fixing things. Something came up I couldn't fix.”

A diagnosis such as cancer “makes you look at your mortality closer,” he says. “Even getting older does that, too. It looks like I lose somebody every week or two, but people are being born all the time, too. Sometimes we're not aware of that. It's just the way of the world.”

Artists tend to react to such a crisis the best way they know how - through creating more art.

“Artists have to have a sensitivity to the things around them,” he says. “I think that has a lot to do with us. It's a way of life. We've been doing this since we were kids. It's just part of our lifestyle.”

“Feed My Soul” reflects that. He finds his soul food in music, art and family.

“I love all kinds of music - classical, jazz, blues, everything. I love paintings,” he says. “Art makes me feel at peace. So does nature. I live around a lot of trees, deer and things like that. I have an orchard, but raccoons climb up and eat the apples.”

Also on his list:

“Good food,” he says, “and my family feeds my soul - my love for my brother, Popsy and my children and grandchildren. My family is all my life.”

He has four daughters and four grandchildren, but it's his wife of 30 years who inspired the prettiest song on the new album, “I Saw Your Face.”

It was born out of the brothers' time on the road.

 “We tour over 100 gigs a year - we slacked down when Wendell got sick,” Sherman Holmes says. “We used to do about 200 a year. Now we're sort of pushing it up with this new CD.”

As a result, Sherman and his wife “spend a lot of time apart,” he says. “She goes to Alabama a few months a year to take care of her mother and I'm on the road. I spend a lot of time alone.”

Time to inspire these lovely lyrics: “Chase away the shadows, peel away the clouds; Love is all that matters, they'll say our name out loud.”

FAST TAKEInformation: www.legionarts.org/music/HolmesBros.htm and www.theholmesbrothers.com

What: The Holmes Brothers

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Where: CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids

 Tickets: $17 in advance at www.midwestix.com or $21 at the door