Norwich singer Holly Lerski’s new single has true star quality, thanks to her own talents - and a sprinkling of stardust from music royalty

Holly Lerski’s new double A-side single has an extraordinary story behind it, as earlier this year the talented singer-songwriter, who lives in Norwich, was gifted unreleased music which had been created by a friend while he was touring with the legendary Crosby, Stills and Nash.

She swiftly added some lyrics and made it her own. Fast forward a few months and the result is Mighty Big Sur, with lyrics written by Holly in a single lunchtime and the vocals recorded at home.

This is teamed up with Holly’s song Carmel, written following an American road trip in 2019 and recorded in the States with the help of four Grammy Award winners!

Key to this story is one of those award winners - bass player James ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson, who gifted her the initial music track and plays on both the single’s songs and Holly’s previous track Home Is Your Shoulder.

Hutch toured with Crosby, Stills and Nash in the 1990s, as well as playing on several of their records, and wrote the music whilst working with the iconic trio. He has played with the biggest names in rock, from the Rolling Stones to BB King and Roy Orbison.


Holly said: David Crosby and Graham Nash always encouraged him to do something with the track, but he had it hidden away. Graham nagged him to do something with it recently so Hutch sent it to me in January and the lyric literally fell out. I wrote it one lunchtime and recorded the vocals in my back room. A homage to California, as I was missing it so much. Hutch did everything else.”

Mighty Big Sur has also received praise from American singing star Bonnie Raitt after being sent it by Hutch, who is her bass player. He told Holly: “She absolutely loved it. Loved your vocals and everything about it.”

The song Carmel was recorded in the States before the pandemic and involved four Grammy Award winners – Hutch on bass, Tony Braunagel on drums, Diego Garcia on electric guitar, and sound mixing was by Johnny Lee Schell (who also provided the studio).

Holly sees the AA-side single as the perfect song to bring us out of lockdown and into summer with renewed optimism.

She said: “I was half-way through making a record with Hutch when the pandemic hit. I even managed to get Covid in October 2020.  But I didn’t give up. I put one of the songs out a month afterwards, Home is Your Shoulder, recorded at home in lockdown.

“This year though, it feels like the tide’s turning in the world. We’re starting to feel optimistic again. And Hutch and I want to celebrate that with a summer AA-side single the colour of the ocean (blue vinyl).”

Holly and her Norwich-based band have been booked to play in the city centre in September as part of the Head Out Not Home series of live outdoor gigs. In previous years, Holly has created critically-acclaimed albums and toured with Eddi Reader, and supported The Cranberries, Josh Rouse and blues legend John Hiatt.

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