Former UT History and English majors come home to play at Tennessee Theatre
They met at a cookout before a UT football game about 20 years ago. He was a history major from Memphis and she was an English Lit major from Nashville. Let’s just say their careers didn’t follow their majors. Yesterday, they were in Mobile, Alabama, and tonight they’re in Albany, Georgia. Tomorrow, they’ll be at the Tennessee Theatre. Every day is a different day for this talented duo.
Drew and Ellie Holcomb, musicians with nationwide recognition and parents of three young children, have toured with Willie Nelson, been in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and just two weeks ago, appeared on the Kelly Clarkson Show.
Over the years their musical careers have merged and moved apart and come back together.
Drew’s Americana band is called “Drew and the Neighbors.” Drew’s hits include “Chasing Someday,” “Dance With Everybody,” “Family,” and “Find Your People.” For eight years Ellie was a member of the band, then took a break for five years to focus on exploring her faith through her Contemporary Christian pop/rock (“I kind of accidentally started my own career,” she says). She must have done a bang-up job because she brought home four Dove Awards from the GMA (Gospel Music Association). Her hits include “With You Now,” “As Sure as the Sun,” “Red Sea Road,” “Find You Here,” and “Wonderfully Made.” For the last several years she’s been touring with Drew again and about 50 percent of the time their kids, aged 12, 9 and 6, are with them.
“We wanted the kids to see us touring together,” she says.
This is longest tour of their lives. They’re promoting “Memory Bank,” named for the new record released three weeks ago that features 13 new songs. They have about 32 shows in every corner of the country, with Knoxville being stop number three.
“This is our sixth year to do the tour,” Drew explains, adding that it’s a much longer tour than usual.
“It is a really fun evening,” Ellie says. “There are two sets: an acoustic set for the first half and then an intermission and the second half we have the band. No show’s the same. We actually have people send in song requests and we try to get them in. My favorite thing about songs is that they’re bridge-builders. They connect our stories. In a time that I guess could feel really divided, what we believe what music can do is bring together and make people feel a little less alone.”
Are there interests beyond composing and performing?
“Yes,” Drew says. “Ellie’s got a bunch of kids’ book and has a new book, ‘Spring Sings,’ coming out in March. That’s pretty exciting.”
“It’s my fourth children’s book,” she says. “My hope is they would help kids and the adults in their lives know who they are and whose they are and what they’re made for. I use the way creation gives us a lot of visual reminders. I have one book for adults called ‘Fighting Words.’ It’s sort of a devotional that helps to speak truth into the darkness, a sort of a scripture memory invitational book.”
“Ellie loves to garden and go on long walks with friends,” Drew says. “I play golf and I’m also a pilot, so I love to fly. And with three kids, we go to a lot of going to ballgames and dance recitals and playing in the backyard.”
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