Holly Muñoz is an American rock and country musician and songwriter based in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

Early life

Muñoz was raised in El Paso, Texas and attended college at

Macalester College Macalester College () is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 2,174 students in the fall of 2018 from 50 U.S. states, four U.S te ...

in St. Paul Minnesota with a double major in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

and history.

Aviette

From 2005 to 2009, Muñoz was the lead vocalist and guitarist for

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

based alternative rock band Aviette. They released two albums, and received national radio airplay. Notable achievements of the band also included having two songs appear on the MTV show'' The Real World'', being selected to perform as official showcase artists at the

CMJ Music Marathon CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

, and giving a live performance on Minnesota public radio station

KCMP KCMP (89.3 FM, 89.3 The Current) is a radio station owned by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) that broadcasts a AAA music format including a significant rotation of songs by local artists. Licensed to Northfield, Minnesota and covering the Minnea ...

, 89.3 The Current.

HOLLY

After leaving Aviette, Muñoz was commissioned by the

Jerome Foundation James Jerome Hill II (March 2, 1905 – November 21, 1972) was an American filmmaker and artist known for his award-winning documentary and experimental films. Career Hill was the child of railroad executive Louis W. Hill. He was educated at Y ...

to compose and perform an improvisational music piece at

The Cedar Cultural Center The Cedar Cultural Center ("the Cedar") is a music venue in Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States near the West Bank campus of the University of Minnesota. It is a 503(c) non-profit organization and operated by vo ...

and later relocated from Minneapolis to San Francisco. A year after landing in California, she left her career as a fundraiser with the San Francisco Symphony with only $2000 in savings to focus on being a full-time musician. Over the course of 20 days, she raised a record-breaking $50,000 using

Tilt Tilt may refer to: Music * Tilt (American band), a punk rock group, formed in 1992 * Tilt (British band), an electronic music group, formed in 1993 * Tilt (Polish band), a rock band, formed in 1979 Albums * ''Tilt'' (Cozy Powell album), 1981 * ...

open to work on a solo album produced by

John Vanderslice John Vanderslice (born May 22, 1967 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and recording engineer. He is the owner and founder of Tiny Telephone, an analog recording studio with locations in San Francisco M ...

. The campaign was the largest successful musical campaign on the platform, and seventh largest campaign overall for 2013. The album, ''Maps and Lists'', was released on September 16, 2014, under the moniker HOLLY and features original album artwork by graphic novelist Anders Nilsen. After releasing the album embarked on a 45-city tour preceded by album release parties in Minneapolis, San Francisco, and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

featuring

Ken Stringfellow Kenneth Stuart Stringfellow (born October 30, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and producer. Best known for his work with The Posies, R.E.M., and the re-formed Big Star, Stringfellow's discography includ ...

from

The Posies The Posies were an American power pop group. The band was formed in 1986 in Bellingham, Washington, United States, by primary songwriters Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. Their music has its origins in Merseybeat and the Hollies. They are ...

Big Star Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton (vocals, guiar), Chris Bell (vocals, guitar), Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). The group broke up in early 1975, and reorganized with a ne ...

and

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...

She also performed a live set on

KEXP-FM KEXP-FM (90.3 MHz) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Seattle, Washington, United States, specializing in alternative and indie rock programmed by its disc jockeys for the Seattle metropolitan area. The station is owned by the non-p ...

in Seattle. In January 2015, she successfully completed another $50,000 crowd funding campaign to record and release "#2 Record", a double concept album that featured two versions of each song. One version featured Holly on vocals and the other featured a collaborating artist, including Vanderslice, Stringfellow,

Alan Sparhawk Alan may refer to: People * Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name ** List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' ...

(of Low), John Hermanson (of Storyhill and Alva Star), and Brian Tighe (of

The Hang Ups The Hang Ups are an indie pop rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, formed in 1990 and fronted by vocalist and guitarist Brian Tighe. Other members include Jeff Kearns ( bass, vocals), Stephen Ittner ( drums), and John Crozier (gu ...

). On March of that year, she and Stringfellow also announced they would be recording a country album together. The album was a concept album based on

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album '' Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of '' Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (1 ...

's album ''

Red Headed Stranger ''Red Headed Stranger'' is the 18th studio album by American outlaw country singer Willie Nelson, released in 1975. Following the success of his recordings with Atlantic Records, coupled with the negotiating skills of his manager, Neil Reshen, ...

'', and included

Vicki Peterson Victoria Anne Theresa Peterson Cowsill (born January 11, 1958) is an American rock musician and songwriter. She has been the lead guitarist for the Bangles since their foundation in 1981. After their first disbandment in 1989, she has returned ...

from

The Bangles The Bangles are an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1981. The band recorded several singles that reached the U.S. top 10 during the 1980s, including " Manic Monday" (1986), " Walk Like an Egyptian" (1986), "Hazy Shad ...

, and

Matthew Caws Matthew Rorison Caws (born August 5, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Nada Surf. Caws is also a member of the indie rock duo Minor Alps, alon ...

Nada Surf Nada Surf is a New York City-based American alternative rock band formed in the 1990s, consisting of Matthew Caws (guitar, vocals), Ira Elliot (drums), Doug Gillard (guitar, backing vocals), and Daniel Lorca (bass, backing vocals). History ...

. It received positive reviews. ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' commented that it was a " fascinating left-field listen" noting "the gorgeous back-and-forth dueting of Stringfellow and Munoz". Willie Nelson's daughter Amy Nelson also called the album "amazing" on her Instagram feed and thanked them on behalf of the Nelson family. More recently she has been involved in the creation of an afro-pop group "Ambassadors" together with Dalmar Yare from the group Waayaha Cusub, Martin Dosh and others.

Work with non-profits

Holly Muñoz co-founded and served on the board of the Mid-Continent Oceanographic Institute (formerly called the Rock Star Supply Company), a non-profit creative writing and tutoring center in the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in sta ...

. She also served on the board of Voice of Witness, an organization that uses oral history and education programs to illuminate domestic and international contemporary human rights crises.

Selected discography

Solo

* ''Maps and Lists'' (2014) * ''#2 Record'' (2015) * ''#2 Record B-Sides'' (2015)

with Maelee Whitman

* ''Apt. 3E'' (2003) * ''West of Pleasant'' (2004)

with Aviette

* ''Until We Hear From Dave'' (2006) * ''The Way We Met'' (2008)

with Holly & Ken

* ''The Record: A Country Concept Album'' (2015)

Appearances

* Adam Svec “Somewhere Under The Rainbow" ''Enemy Swimmer'' (2008) * Al Church “You Came Into My Life” ''Next Summer'' (2015) * The Posies “Titanic" '' Solid States'' (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munoz, Holly 1981 births Living people Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area American rock guitarists American women singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from California Musicians from El Paso, Texas Singer-songwriters from Texas Macalester College alumni Crowdfunded albums Guitarists from California Guitarists from Texas 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American women guitarists 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American singer-songwriters