Holly Near - Biography
By J Poet
Holly Near is a singer, songwriter and social activist, probably the only folksinger ever nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She was an actress with a promising career on the Broadway stage, films and TV when she took part in the FTA (Free the Army) tour, a caravan of entertainers and activists that played coffee houses and churches near Army bases in 1971 to support service men who were protesting the Vietnam War. It was a life changing experience. She became a feminist and activist and ditched traditional show biz to sing folk and self-composed protest songs. She started her own label, Redwood Records, in 1972, and came out as a lesbian in 1976. Near helped create the genre known as “woman’s music” and make it viable with her recordings on Redwood. She’s collaborated with many artists including Ronnie Gilbert, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Joan Baez and Harry Belafonte. Redwood folded in 1993 but Near continues to tour, demonstrate, teach performance and songwriting workshops and lecture. She launched a new label, Calico Tracks in late 1993.
Near was born in Ukiah, California to parents who were social activists and old school lefties. She sang and played piano from an early age and joined The Freedom Singers, a vocal group started by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1963. She sang alongside Bernice Johnson Reagon, later the founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock. In 1968 she went to UCLA for their Theatre Arts program and her short traditional show biz career ignited. She appeared on TV in The Mod Squad, All in the Family and The Partridge Family as well as in films like Cult of the Damned (1969), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), and Slaughterhouse Five (1972). In 1970 she was cast in the Broadway production of Hair, but after the Kent State shootings she joined the FTA tour and got radicalized. She started writing and performing political songs and made her famous statement “I do not separate my music from my heart nor do I separate my ideas from my daily life. I open my self up to learning as much as I can about humanity and this mysterious life experience, but I do not relate to political work as a series of ‘causes.’ I integrate what I learn into my personal life, personalizing my politics.”
In 1972, at the age of 23, she founded Redwood Records; one of the first woman owned and operated labels. Her first albums including Hang in There (1973 Redwood) and You Can Know All I Am (1976 Redwood) were well received, but it was Imagine My Surprise! (1979 Redwood) that made her a star. Near came out as a lesbian, sported a butch hair style on the album cover, and produced one of the first classic “women’s music albums." Near toured to support her albums, doing almost as many benefits for gay, women’s, civil rights and anti war groups as paying gigs. She released Fire in the Rain (1979 Redwood), Speed of Light and Lifeline, a collaboration with her hero Ronnie Gilbert of The Weavers. The set included the first recording of her best-known song “Singing for Our Lives” AKA “We Are a Gentle Angry People.”
Near became the unofficial “house band” of the feminist movement, performing regularly and releasing albums full of heartfelt protest songs, marked by their compassion and understanding. Watch Out! (1984 Redwood) included country and bluegrass flavored arrangements and included songs that addressed the US invasion of Grenada; Sing To Me the Dream (1984 Redwood, 2007 Calico Tracks) was a collaboration with the Chilean folk/protest band Inti Illimani: HARP (1985 Redwood, 1993 Calico Tracks) is a live concert that features Near (H), Arlo Guthrie (A), Ronnie Gilbert (R), and Pete Segeer (R) singing folk and protest songs from all over the planet; Singing With You (1987 Redwood) another album with Ronnie Gilbert; Don’t Hold Back (1987 Redwood) a lush pop album that surprised many listeners and includes a duet with Kenny Loggins and Sky Dances (1989 Redwood) which featured songs by Near’s favorite singer/songwriters including Phil Ochs, Bruce Cockburn and Malvina Reynolds.
After Redwood Records folded in 1993, Near reorganized and launched Calico Tracks, he new label. She also started a long-term relationship with a man and continued speaking out for human rights and dignity. She wrote an autobiography Fire In The Rain, Singer In The Storm (1991 Quill). With her sister Timothy, she wrote a one woman show based on the book that played successfully in LA, New York and San Francisco. Many of her earlier albums have been reissued on Calico Tracks along with new recordings that include: With a Song in My Heart (1997 Calico Tracks), an albums of show tunes, Simply Love: The Women’s Music Collection (2000 Calico Tracks) with songs by Near and other feminist singer/songwriters including Alix Dobkin, Ferron, Margie Adam, and Chris Williamson, Edge (2000 Calico Tracks) her first album of new self-written songs since 1984, Chris & Holly (2003 Calico Tracks) with tunes from the catalogue of both woman and some new collaborations and Show Up (2006 Calico Tracks) with songs that address globalization and pacifism.
Near also continues her human rights work. In 2004, she marched with Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) in Juarez, Mexico to protest the uninvestigated killings of hundreds of women; protested outside the School of the Americas (recently renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) the notorious UA Army base that trains Latin American armies in the arts of torture and assassination and did benefits for Adi Yekutieli’s organization 10,000 Kites, an anti-war project that helped almost 30,000 young people from Israel and Palestine fly “peace kites” on May, 20, 2005.
Near’s portrait hangs in The Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. She’s received honors from the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Organization for Women, NARAS, Ms. Magazine (Woman of the Year), and the Legends of Women’s Music Award. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for her part in the organization 1000 Peace Women. Near’s papers are archived with the Schlesinger Library at Radcliff. In 2006 she released Show Up, followed by We Came To Sing (featuring Emma' Revolution ) in 2009.
