Carole Holley

Carole Holley came to the Twin Cities from Dallas where she fronted her band and performed with celebrities including Bob Hope on two occasions, at his request. She is a versatile singer who started her career in musical comedy and has performed for national radio and television audiences, including solo vocal peformances for PBS-TV, featuring Ella Fitzgerald, Henry Mancini, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

While in Dallas, Carole's club act was frequented several nights a week by the director, cast, and crew of the television series "Dallas." Other artists seen catching the band have been Van Halen, Billy Idol, Santana, Neil Sedaka, Joan Rivers, Benji (the moviestar dawg), Billy Eckstein, Rodney Dangerfield, composer Yip Harburg who wrote "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and many more.

Carole and her 8-piece Minneapolis band, The Planets, project high energy, adding to each performance with years of musicianship, humor, and spunk. Playing everything from Big Band to Motown, Rock & Roll to Pop, they perform for fundraisers, corporate parties, special events, and weddings.

As a club and show performer, Carole has been favorably reviewed by music critics from the Dallas Morning News, Dallas Times Herald, Las Vegas Sun, and Las Vegas Today.

In Las Vegas, Carole headlined at the MGM Grande Cub Lounge with her jazz quartet from Dallas, and has always been blessed to work with the most awesome musicians from Dallas to Minneapolis.

Since moving to the Twin Cities, she has performed in concert with David Byrne of the Talking Heads in Byrne's "The Forest" with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, and in the Hey City Stage production of "American Heartbeat", as well as numerous gospel concerts.

Carole has recorded commercial jingles and industrial projects throughout the years, and has fun singing "backup" for friends and other artists.

And after all that, what gets the most reaction? The fact that Carole is kin to another musical Texan - Buddy Holly.