Words and Music by Bill Holland
Special Achievement Award:
For his Billboard series on Record Contracts WAMA
AWARD WINNER
Words and Music by Bill Holland
Special Achievement Award:
For his Billboard series on Record Contracts WAMA
AWARD WINNER
MOST RECENT RELEASE
"By Heart," Dutch Treat 1006. Studio recording. CD. Original jazz and jazz-pop.
WAMA AWARD WINNER: Jazz Duo or Group
Visions of You MP3
Bill visits with progressive radio legend Damian Einstein at WRNR in Annapolis, Md., to talk about the music on the new album and share a few stories. Einstein is music director of the station, one of the few remaining commercial stations on the East Coast that plays music the hosts choose.
Bill won his second ASCAP Deems Taylor Award at ceremonies in December 2001 in New York City. This time he was awarded the top music writing prize for his year-long series of articles in Billboard chronicling the controversial work made for hire changes to the U.S. Copyright Act that took away the rights of recording artists to reclaim their recordings in the future. Holland's articles were instrumental in bringing the changes to the attention of the creative community, and as a result, Congress repealed the law. A panel of independent artists and songwriters unanimously bestowed the award.
Jay Rosenthal (WAMA), Timothy White (Billboard), Bill Holland, and John Previti,
WAMA Musician of the Year
In January, 2001, the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) awarded him its Special Achievement Award for the same series of articles.
In 1998, ASCAP awarded Holland its first Deems Taylor Award following his series of investigative reports in Billboard the previous year which plumbed for the first time the systematic destruction and loss by U.S. record companies of untold numbers of master tapes and heritage sound recordings.
He was also awarded the Front Page Donaldson award from Billboard for that series.
In 1994, WAMA awarded Holland a special achievement award for charitable work.
On the music side, in 1995, Holland won WAMA's Best Male Jazz Vocalist award, and was nominated for Songwriter of the Year for his album "Players, Fools & Thieves." That CD was also nominated for Best Jazz Album of the year, and was picked by Performing Songwriter Magazine as one of the Top Indie releases of 1995. Holland also was nominated for WAMA's Best Male Jazz Vocalist award in 1996 and 1997.
Background
From 1974 to 1981, the singer/songwriter/pianist led one of the area's most highly regarded original music groups, Bill Holland & the Rent's Due Band, headlining local clubs and concert stages. The first of his three LPs, "If It Ain't One Thing, It's Another," originally on Adelphi, received national attention and airplay and made several year-end lists in 1976. In 1996, Holland released a best-of CD compilation of his work with Rent's Due, entitled "Way Overdue" (Dutch Treat, DTR 1005).
Before beginning his music career as pianist in the original lineup of the veteran blues group, The Nighthawks, Holland was an award-winning magazine writer and general assignment reporter for the now-defunct D.C. daily, The Washington Star.
