Solo pianist Holly Bowling is an artist who repeatedly defies convention, breaks ceilings, and eludes simplistic labels, while bringing virtuosic playing, emotional immersion, and a thirst for invention to everything that she does. Acclaimed by Rolling Stone and having jammed with a long list of impressive company (Bob Weir, Jim James, Warren Haynes, John Scofield, Branford Marsalis, and many more), Holly has established herself as a virtuoso pianist with her own musical voice. 

Holly has fostered a strong sense of identity while musically shapeshifting to the task at hand, from joining Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh for extended explorations of “Dark Star,” to recording dance tracks with LP Giobbi. She is a frequent guest of Greensky Bluegrass, with whom she recorded The Iceland Sessions EP in 2023 as well as appearing on the previous year’s Stress Dreams. Her solo piano arrangements span across genres, featuring songs from The National and Nine Inch Nails to Phish and the Grateful Dead, and have been featured in several independent films in addition to opening the door to performances at storied venues from Carnegie Hall to Red Rocks. 

In 2015, Holly arrived as an exciting outlier on Distillation Of A Dream: The Music Of Phish Reimagined For Solo Piano. A year later, Better Left Unsung, her sophomore release featuring the music of the Grateful Dead, landed in the top 25 of Billboard’s Classical Album Chart.

Holly co-founded improvisational rock outfit Ghost Light in 2018 with JRAD’s Tom Hamilton with whom she also released an instrumental duo album, Lacuna, in 2022. 

During the pandemic, Holly toured national parks, recording audience-less performances against the living backdrop of some of America’s most breathtaking landscapes, bringing the solace of open spaces into fans’ living rooms. As she does with her live-audience performances — but for this series, with wilderness as her only witness — Holly played to the room.

After releasing 2020’s Seeking All That’s Still Unsung (a second reimagining of Grateful Dead staples), Holly looks to flip the script once more with an upcoming album of original compositions.

In the meantime, you can catch Holly’s solo piano performances in curated venues across the country, and at select shows with her longtime collaborators, Greensky Bluegrass. 

Fans can count on her musical shapeshifting adventure continuing to cover new ground as she takes listeners with her into the unknown.