Singer Holly Starr keeps her Basin ties

QUINCY - Although Christian singer Holly Starr's gigs take her all over the country, the Quincy native said the best part of each trip is returning home.

Starr has performed in Texas, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, among other places, this past year. Most recently, she performed at the Christian Musician Summit in Seattle which took place this past weekend.

Although getting to an airport takes a little longer coming from Quincy than it would a bigger city, Starr said she wants to live in Quincy for as long as she can.

"I love Quincy," she said. "This is where my family is, this is where my history is."

Starr comes from a line of Quincy farmers, started when her great-grandfather moved to the area from Seattle many years ago.

Starr said she values having grown up in a small town, which is why she always looks forward to coming back to Quincy in between gigs.

"We're in the city a lot, traveling and playing for lots of people," said Starr. "So when I'm back here, it's real life."

Starr's early music career involved performing with her church's youth band and writing songs on the side.

"I was really involved with the church since I was young, so I played songs there when there were opportunities," Starr said. "If there were talent shows I would sing at them, or open house coffee-house opportunities like in Wenatchee I would go there."

Starr also had some songs up on a Myspace page, which is how a producer from the Tacoma area discovered her.

She released her first album Tapestry in 2010 and her second, Focus, last October. And songs from both albums have done extremely well, getting airplay on Christian music stations around the country, she said.

Her song "Don't Have Love" made it to the Top 30 on the Christian Adult Contemporary (AC) charts. The song also appeared on the Top 25 Christian Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) charts.

The video for "Don't Have Love" has also gotten more than 570,000 hits on YouTube.

But Starr said she didn't pursue a career in music for the success or recognition.

"My favorite part about this is the opportunity to talk about Jesus," she said. "That's the bottom line to me, it's not about the money or being on stage."

Starr said she hopes her music encourages people to turn to God in tough times, much like she did.

"So many people on this earth have gone through things and I just want to be a voice to say to other people that they're not alone," Starr said. "And I want to offer them hope beyond saying you're not going through this alone and here's a solution that I've found that's actually worked for me."

Starr said the best part of giving her testimony through music is hearing how God has worked in other people's lives. She said she is always meeting people who have gone through some dark times but managed to come out on top with God's help.

"Night after night I hear stories that are even darker than mine, and girls and guys coming up to me saying thank you for sharing your story and here's mine," she said. "It's God's grace to me, letting me experience that."

Starr said she is currently working on writing songs for her next album. She is also releasing her first Christmas song, "Yeshua Jesus," on Nov. 12.

To watch a video interview with Starr and her drummer Nicole Hickman, visit www.columbiabasinherald.com Wednesday.