Worth Knowing, Worth Going provides a spotlight on emerging artists poised to make waves in and around Richmond. This time out, we spoke with Brady Heck and Rebekah Rafferty, vocalists for local Americana outfit Holy Roller, which will stop by the Broadberry on Thursday, July 18 to headline the second annual Road to Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion concert. It’s the second time the group will play the showcase and its second appearance at the bustling September festival run by the Birthplace of Country Music. Also it happens that Holy Roller just completed its sophomore effort: “Good Religion,” the full-length follow-up to 2018’s self-titled debut LP. A lot has changed along the way, but they’re rolling with it.
Style Weekly: How did the lineup you have now take shape?
Brady Heck: Our bass player, Peter Cason, and I met in 2009 and had a version of what this whole thing was going to turn into since our freshman year in high school. Then that became Big Mama Shakes [around] 2013, and we rode with that for a few years, had some lineup changes [then] had a very accidental name change. Peter submitted the name change to Facebook not realizing that it was going to change overnight with no warning, and then we all got a notification on our phones saying, “A page you follow has changed its name to Holy Roller …”
The first album was a much different lineup. We had some lineup changes shortly after that album came out. That’s about when Rebekah came on, and Ryan [Davis], our drummer. Our keyboard player, Bryce Doyle, has been with us since Big Mama Shakes days, and then Clay Massok plays guitar with us now and does all the horn parts and the horn arranging. He and I have been friends since we were like 10 … It’s just been an ever-evolving thing. And now finally, we’re at a place where we have a pretty concrete lineup that’s not going anywhere.
“Good Religion” feels like an evolutionary step in the band’s sound. What has helped shape that sound?
Heck: A lot of patience… Not being afraid of doing the thing that is where your heart lies. As musicians or creators, we have a real tendency to second-guess ourselves. “It’s not cool enough, it’s not this-that-or-the-other enough.” Having faith in “To hell with it. If you like it, do it. If you like it, that’s what’s important.” Also not being the only writer. Rebekah wrote songs on the album [and] the entire band was involved in several songs… You have extra people there that contribute that personality and bring it more to form.
Rebekah Rafferty: I wasn’t really there for the first album, so I don’t have any kind of comparison for that, but I’ll say being in on the second one, it felt super-collaborative. Like Brady said earlier, one thing we really tried to do was make sure that we loved the music — not [asking], “What’s cool right now? What are people listening to?” and going with, “Hey if we love it, that’s what matters.”
What shows have been particularly significant, either personally or to the band?
Heck: The [“Good Religion”] album release was probably one of the most special shows I’ve ever gotten to play in my life. That was a massive culmination of all the hard work. Having all those people there knowing every single word to the album that you released seven days ago was pretty irreplaceable.
Rafferty: The first show we played at Bristol [Rhythm & Roots Reunion], it was a Friday night, and we really had no idea what to expect. We had literally no idea. It was a crowded bar. We didn’t know what the crowd was going to be like… We couldn’t tell if people were having a good time, [but] we decided, “F–k it, we’re gonna just rock it and have so much fun.” Then we had such a good response after that show, and so many people came up to us and came to our next show the next day. That was a really special introduction to Bristol.
Heck: That festival in general — that was a real first taste of doing festival stuff — I think it was an eye-opening experience for us, because it was like, “Oh, we’re not just a hometown band. We’re getting to go out and do bigger things and people still enjoy it …” When we got asked to do it, I was like, “Alright, whatever. We’ll go do this thing, I guess.” But then we got there, and the whole town turns into a music venue, pretty much. It’s everywhere. Everybody is so hype on it, and [it’s] part of the culture.
What are you looking forward to about the Road to Bristol show at the Broadberry?
Heck: Getting to grow the band to a point where we now get to play the Broadberry for the third time is incredibly rewarding. We cut our teeth doing it at the Camel and I adore that venue, but there’s a lot of pride in seeing the whole thing grow.
Rafferty: Obviously it’s always fun playing shows in your hometown. It’s like a big family reunion, which is great. But we also get to play with our buds, so the show’s going to be super-fun.
What else is on the horizon that we should keep an eye out for?
Heck: We’ve got some festivals — a lot of cool, new things that we haven’t gotten to do before. Truthfully, this band doesn’t have a huge touring history. When we were first starting to get off the ground is also right when the shutdown happened. After that we took two years away from it before we started playing again. [From] 2020 to 2022 we didn’t really do much.
Rafferty: We played here and there, but I do think we’re really trying to, for the first time, seriously just tour… We had a really great experience recently playing in different parts of North Carolina and Virginia, so we’re excited to start going to a bunch of places we haven’t been before, and also reconnecting with people that we’ve only maybe met once.
Heck: Making new friends, playing new places.
Rafferty: We’re just trying to make some new friends [laughs].
Holy Roller will perform at the Broadberry on Thursday, July 18 as part of the Road to Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion showcase. The Jared Stout Band, Justin Golden and Florencia & the Feeling will also perform. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at thebroadberry.com.
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