Sage Hill’s own Black Box Theater was recently honored to present award-winning professional storyteller David Holt. Holt is a four time Grammy winner, and performs with the heart to show it. As he plays a variety of lesser-known instruments of traditional “mountain music”, he tells stories of how he came to appreciate the music of classic folk in a time before “bluegrass” was even a genre.

        Holt’s beginnings were not those of a country boy, but rather a California college student with a passion for music. In fact, he decided to follow that passion all the way to the other side of the country where he discovered his passion for mountain music.

        Through the teachings of old musicians, Holt picked up the style of the music as well as the stories they told. As a reflection of that, Holt performs as stories and music interspersed between one another, each song or story relating to the next.

        It’s a performance that cannot be recreated; Holt’s style is one of a kind and thus a once in a lifetime experience. For students to see him perform is eye opening into the world of music, writing, and art that exists.

Holt succeeds in captivating his audience, the unique combination of cozy folk tale-like stories and music that rings of some rural home from a different time connects on every level of emotion and understanding.

See his TED talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZeVtfQ7bpI