Holly Palmer

Holly Palmer (born c. 1971) is an American singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. She has released five albums as a solo artist, and has toured extensively as a vocalist with acts including David Bowie and Gnarls Barkley. She is also the "Cheesecake" partner in Bubbles & Cheesecake, an Internet-based, multi-media collaboration with multi-disciplinary artist Allee Willis. Other musicians with whom she has collaborated include Paula Cole, Dr. Dre, Billy Preston, Dave Navarro and Michael Bublé, among others.

Palmer was born in Santa Monica, California and grew up primarily in Redmond, Washington, near Seattle.

Growing up, Palmer played the family piano whenever possible, and played the flute in a school music ensemble. In the eighth grade, she switched to the saxophone so that she could sing with the school's jazz band. She soon began singing standards with the group, and became inspired by jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, whose innovative interpretations would make an enormous mark on Palmer's style. After high school, Palmer attended Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington before making her way to Boston, Massachusetts to stay with a friend. She attended and graduated from Berklee College of Music.

Palmer started playing live gigs during the period she lived in Boston. She particularly enjoyed stripped-down shows at small clubs, and she still loves intimate engagements offering the opportunity for spontaneous chemistry with the audience. Also during her time in Boston, Palmer began to seriously delve into songwriting, and landed a demo deal with Island Records.

Palmer relocated to New York City (where she still performs regularly) in the mid-'90s. She recorded her self-titled 1996 debut album Holly Palmer, produced by Kenny White, which came out on Reprise Records, a Warner Bros. Records-affiliated label, and met with a positive response from critics, and featured contributions from Bill Frisell and John Leventhal. Surrounding its release, Holly toured the U.S. and Europe opening for artists including k.d. lang, Shawn Colvin and Paula Cole. In 1998, Holly went to London and began recording what was intended to be her second disc for the label, Tender Hooks, with producer Howie B, who has also produced albums with U2, Björk, and Robbie Robertson. She finished the album back in NYC with David Kahne (Regina Spektor, Sublime, The Bangles) producing two tracks. She amicably parted ways with Reprise, though, and the album remained unreleased for the time being.

In 1999, David Bowie invited Palmer to sing background vocals on his album Hours; she was featured on the album-opening track "Thursday's Child." Palmer subsequently toured worldwide with Bowie and his band as a vocalist and percussionist throughout 1999–2000.

After completing the Bowie tour in 2000, Palmer settled in Los Angeles, where her music publisher Marla McNally introduced her to Grammy-winning, Emmy and Tony-nominated composer Allee Willis (whose songwriting credits include Earth Wind & Fire's "Boogie Wonderland" and "September", Broadway's "The Color Purple", "I'll Be There for You (Theme from Friends)", etc.). They began a songwriting collaboration, at the time primarily focused on songs for what would be Palmer's next solo album, I Confess. Palmer made a new deal with Tom Whalley and Jeff Ayeroff, the new heads of Warner Bros. for the album's release but, after completing the album, once again, she and the label saw things differently and went their separate ways. This time, Palmer was able to take the masters for both Tender Hooks and I Confess with her.

I Confess album highlights included the single "Just So You Know", a Don Was-produced cover of the Holland-Dozier-Holland classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and Dr. Dre's mix of "Jumping Jack". Late, great keyboardist Billy Preston was spotlighted on the track "Down So Low", also featuring Joachim Cooder on drums. Holly launched her own label imprint, Bombshell Records, and independently released both I Confess and Tender Hooks on it in 2004.