It’s an exciting time to be Steve Holy these days. The Curb recording artist is set to release his third album, “Love Don’t Run” on Tuesday, Sept. 13. It contains the hit title track, which currently sits at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
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It’s his first album since 2006, and he’s more than ready to get new music out to the public. “It’s so much sweeter this time, and I don’t know, it’s kind of weird — my first album came out back in 2001, then we didn’t have another out until 2006. I know that songs last longer on the chart now than they used to, so you’re naturally going to have a larger gap between albums, but I don’t think that every five years was the plan,” he says with a smile.
Holy admits to there being some frustration at times about not being able to release music more often, but he understands the reasons behind his record company’s practice. “It does, no doubt about it, but at the same time, I understand why Curb operates the way they do. They used to get laughed at. People would ask me ‘Why are they doing it this way?’ But, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but everyone else is starting to do that,” he says in alluding to the fact that Curb prefers to release an album after the single has made a significant dent at radio.
Still, the fans are another story. They have continued to ask about new music, Holy says. “It is frustrating, and it’s funny you say that. I have been asked by some of the fans why it takes so long, and I try to explain it. Sometimes, they don’t understand, and when they don’t, I just say ‘I hope you enjoy the show, and move on to someone else.”
Holy and producer Lee Miller collaborated on writing several of the tracks off of the album. “We put some time aside, and started writing for this project. We wrote a few songs, and had gone in and cut them, and Colt Cameron from the label sent me a song called ‘Love Don’t Run.’
That seemed to change Holy’s game plan a little. “At that point, I thought one of the songs that we wrote would be the first single. Then, the label pitches me that one, I remember thinking if we can pull this off, it could be the first single — which it turned out to be. But, there was a glitch. We got the ok to cut it. They said ‘Yes, it’s yours.’ The day before we go in to cut the song they say ‘Oh, by the way, Ronnie Dunn has it on hold, and he’s cutting it tomorrow!”
To say that news was a shock was an understatement. “I thought ‘You’re kidding me, so we lost ‘Love Don’t Run.” But, it all worked out, admits Holy.
“Fast forward forty-eight hours, and I get a call back from Colt saying ‘For whatever reason, it didn’t work out with Colt in the studio. It’s yours.’ So, it was a miracle. I got it, and lost it, then got it back. After cutting the five tunes, that was the obvious choice for the first single.”
The song has made an undeniable impact, says Steve. “It’s so reminiscent of ‘Good Morning, Beautiful’ that it’s not even funny. We would hear from parents that ‘Good Morning Beautiful’ was their song to their child. It was a guy’s song to his girl, a girl”s song to her guy. It was always somebody’s song. It was the neatest thing in the world – to see how it moved people… I’m honored to be a part of that song.”
Other songs that Holy feels could be singles include “Until the Rain Stops,” of which he says “It’s a mid-tempo song that many are saying screams radio, “Wonders,” “Haul Off and Kiss Me,” a song that Holy says is reminiscent of “Brand New Girlfriend.” He also points to “If It Gets You Where You Want To Go,” which was co-written by Rodney Atkins.
Holy says one of the biggest differences between this single and his previous hits is the digital success of the song. “I think we’ve done about 300,000 downloads on the single, I believe. I think it’s a must. It’s the future. It’s really tough for me, growing up and loving music, and going out to buy records my whole life. It’s part of it, part of the experience — there’s something special about that to me. Seeing that go away has been tough to take, but at the same time, it’s the future, so you’ve got to jump on board.”