Home / Biography / David Holt

David Holt

Biography

Contemporary banjo participant and storyteller David Holt is certainly specialized in keeping old-time music and tales alive. Best-known because the web host of TNN’s Fireplace on the Hill as well as the American Music Store, he also information children’s albums. He was created into a recognised Texas family members and started playing the family’s traditional musical instruments, the spoons and bone fragments, at age group ten. When he was a teenager, the family shifted to California where he started playing the drums and obtained experience in a number of rock & move and jazz rings. His budding fascination with traditional music bloomed after hearing an motivating 78 rpm one by cowboy vocalist Carl T. Sprague, whom he journeyed to Bryan, Tx to find out. Sprague trained Holt to try out harmonica and prompted his fascination with old tracks. In 1969, Holt and his university buddy, banjo participant Steve Keith, stopped at the southern Appalachians, where they immersed themselves in the neighborhood musical customs; Holt discovered the clawhammer banjo design directly from the resources. Soon after getting his teaching certificate and levels in biology and artwork from the College or university of California, Holt shifted to Asheville, NEW YORK for more information about hill music. For quite some time he interviewed and taped traditional music artists and convinced these to play at regional festivals. (A lot of the research as well as the recordings continues to be put into the Library of Congress.) Moffatt also founded and helmed the Appalachian Music plan at Warren Wilson University in Swannanoa, NEW YORK in 1975. Holt started his own saving career for the June Appal label, and made a decision to turn into a full-time performer in 1980. Along with his brand white fedora, Holt shortly became a significant shape in traditional music and earned the very best Old-Time Banjoist in Frets magazine’s Visitors’ Poll 3 x. He founded his very own label, Great Windy, and it has released many albums. He also created shows such as for example Banjo Reb & the Blue Ghost to create the music to wider viewers. He is constantly on the tour and it has made an appearance on Hee Haw, Nashville Right now, as well as the Grand Ole Opry, where he gets the distinction to be the very first performer to try out a paper sack on stage. Furthermore to hosting TNN displays, Holt has created the seven-part series Folkways for PBS radio. He also hosted and starred in American General public Radio’s Riverwalk: Live from your Landing, that was broadcast from San Antonio. In 1992, Holt released the Grammy-nominated Grandfather’s Greatest Strikes, offering Chet Atkins and Duane Eddy. 2 yrs later, he released an album known as I ACQUIRED a Bullfrog: Folksongs for the Fun of It.

Quick Facts


Date Of Birth October 15, 1946
Profession Musician
Nationality American
Children Janna Holt, Hayley Holt, Lamont Holt, Tina Holt
Awards Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album, Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children
Music Groups Storyville
Music Songs When the Train Comes Along, Freight Train, Bury Me Beneath the Willow, Darlin' Cory, Stand by Me, I Got the Blues and I Can't Be Satisfied, Georgia Buck, Sourwood Mountain, Free Little Bird, The Telephone Girl, Whoop 'em Up Cindy, Railroad Bill, Otto Wood, Roll on Buddy, Interview: 'Blessed', Sittin' on Top of the World, My Last Meal, Things Are Coming My Way, Interview: 'Building Bridges', Cripple Creek, Interview: 'Top of the Heap', Don't Get Weary, Interview: 'Living the Blues', Country Communion, Interview: 'Hitting the Road', Interview: 'Learn to Pick It Good', Morris Norton's Tune Bow and Paper Bag, Interview: 'Leaving Home', Aunt Zip at 105, Cousin Sally Brown, Grandad's Gator Guards, Rolling in My Sweet Baby's Arms
Albums Grandfather's Greatest Hits, Dog Years
Movies The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Courage of Lassie, The Last Days of Pompeii, She Shoulda Said No!, Beau Geste, The Cat's-Paw, Age of Indiscretion, The Cheaters, Combat Squad, Trouble for Two, Applause, You Belong to Me, Men Without Names, Straight from the Shoulder, Military Academy, Second Chance
TV Shows David Holt's State of Music


  • Facts
  • Filmography
  • Awards
  • Salaries
  • Quotes
  • Trademarks
  • Pictures

#Fact
1 Often mistakenly listed as being related to the more well known Holt acting family - Jack Holt, Tim Holt and Jennifer Holt. He wasn't.
2 Eventually abandoned acting to become a much respected jazz pianist and composer.
3 One of his first jobs was as a body double for Cheetah the chimpanzee in Tarzan the Fearless (1933) starring Buster Crabbe. He was 6 years old.
4 A naturally talented youngster, he was once touted by Paramount Pictures as the "male Shirley Temple."
5 Was working on his autobiography, "The Holts of Hollywood" at the time of his death.
6 Co-wrote "The Christmas Blues" with Sammy Cahn, which was heard on the soundtrack of L.A. Confidential (1997).
7 Younger brother Ricky Holt played the infant son of Melanie in Gone with the Wind (1939).
8 Had been cast as the lead in David Copperfield (1935), but producer David O. Selznick, who developed misgivings about having an American youngster portray a quintessentially British boy, gave the lead role to English child actor Freddie Bartholomew instead.
9 Children: Lamont, Janna, Hayley, Tina.
10 Child actor of the 30s whose career as a troublemaker didn't last much past his teens. Brother of child actress Betty Holt.
11 Began composing at age 14 and wrote material at one point for Doris Day.
12 In the early 60s he went into the real estate business, retiring in 1985.


Actor

Actor

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Soul Music 1997 TV Mini-Series
American Music Shop 1990 TV Series Host
Dragnet 1955 TV Series
Combat Squad 1953 Garvin
Affair with a Stranger 1953 Director at Recording Studio (uncredited)
Four Star Playhouse 1952 TV Series Chuck Stern
Fearless Fagan 1952 Soldier (uncredited)
Second Chance 1950 Jimmy Dean
The Lone Ranger 1950 TV Series Johnny Sears
Battleground 1949 G.I. Straggler (uncredited)
Sky Liner 1949 Buford
Wild Weed 1949 Bob Lester
Command Decision 1948 Lt. Nelson (voice, uncredited)
Affairs of Geraldine 1946 Percy McBride
Sweetheart of Sigma Chi 1946 Tommy Carr
Courage of Lassie 1946 Pete Merrick
Hot Cargo 1946 Peter Chapman
The Cheaters 1945 Reggie Pidgeon
Reckless Age 1944 Horace Farnsworth (uncredited)
Henry Aldrich, Boy Scout 1944 Irwin Barrett (uncredited)
Top Man 1943 Archie Fleming
Destroyer 1943 Sobbing Sailor (uncredited)
The Human Comedy 1943 Hubert Ackley III (uncredited)
The Pride of the Yankees 1942 Billy - Age 17
What's Cookin'? 1942 Herby (uncredited)
Remember the Day 1941 Pitcher (uncredited)
Military Academy 1940 Sandy Blake
Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President 1939 Fred (uncredited)
Hero for a Day 1939 Billy Higgins
Beau Geste 1939 Augustus Brandon as a Child
Sons of the Legion 1938 Jimmy Hynes
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1938 Sid Sawyer
The Big Broadcast of 1937 1936 Train Bearer
Straight from the Shoulder 1936 Johnny Hayden
Kids on the Cuff 1935
The Last Days of Pompeii 1935 Flavius, as a Boy
It's a Great Life 1935 Ruddy
The Big Broadcast of 1936 1935 Brother
Men Without Names 1935 David Sherwood
Age of Indiscretion 1935 Bill Lenhart (as David Jack Holt)
You Belong to Me 1934 Jimmy Faxon (as David Jack Holt)
Now and Forever 1934
The Cat's-Paw 1934 Ezekiel as a Boy (uncredited)
Shock 1934 Rickey Marbury (as David Jack Holt)
She Made Her Bed 1934 Little Boy (uncredited)
Stand Up and Cheer! 1934 Boy at Audition for Miss Adams (uncredited)
Forgotten Babies 1933 Short Our Gang member (as Our Gang)
Applause 1929 Jack Singer

Soundtrack

Soundtrack

TitleYearStatusCharacter
A Very Murray Christmas 2015 writer: "Christmas Blues", "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"
L.A. Confidential 1997 writer: "The Christmas Blues" 1932
Walk the Dark Street 1956 writer: "Walk the Dark Street"
Age of Indiscretion 1935 performer: "Silent Night, Holy Night" 1818 - uncredited

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Tarzan the Fearless 1933 human double: chimpanzee - uncredited

Self

Self

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Hee Haw 1988-1991 TV Series Himself
The Star Reporter in Hollywood 1937 Short Himself

Looks like we don't have awards information. Sorry!



Looks like we don't have salary information. Sorry!


#Quote
1 On adjusting to public school: "My life was hell. My mother made me wear short pants - white short pants. Every boy in that school wanted to punch out the 'movie star,' 'cry-baby,' 'sissy,' and most of them tried. Fortunately, I had been scheduled to do a picture with Max Baer that was cancelled when he lost the championship. But we'd gotten friendly and he taught me how to box - really box. I whipped more asses at that school."
2 Because I could dance my folks went through hell so I could be in movies. But I didn't dance in pictures. I cried! At one point I had polio, which I believe was a result of the stress I felt in the studios. My parents broke up. My father resented that I was paid so much more than he was. When it was all over there was no money.


Looks like we don't have trademarks information. Sorry!



Looks like we don't have pictures. Sorry!

Check Also

Russell Smith

Russell Smith followed up an effective run while vocalist and guitarist using the Amazing Tempo …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.