On the Red Sea Road

Recording artist Ellie Holcomb talks about her successful path into CCM

When singer-songwriter Ellie Holcomb was attending college at the University of Tennessee, the blonde acoustic guitarist said she was like a “bad Taylor Swift,” using songwriting to cope with the pain of relationships.

“I’d play all these awful heartbreak songs in my college dorm room stairwell,” Holcomb said.

“And inevitably what would happen is I would finish a song, and I would look up and girls would be lining the stairwell.”

These days, Holcomb’s songwriting is still connecting with others who are drawn to the vulnerability that saturates her music.

Holcomb’s second album “Red Sea Road,” which was released Jan. 27, was written in response to a time of suffering for the singer and several of her friends.

“I wrote ‘Red Sea Road’ to remind myself of the way God was drawing near to our breaking hearts in the middle of two of the most chaotic, painful years I’ve ever experienced,” Holcomb said.

“This record was me planting a flag in the middle of the desert to say even here, my God is faithful.”

During those years, Holcomb watched folks in her community in Nashville suffer from tragedies such as divorce, substance abuse and miscarriages.

And then in the middle of her friends’ heartbreak, Holcomb’s father was diagnosed with cancer.

Holcomb’s father, contemporary Christian music producer Brown Bannister, is now cancer-free.

But as she was writing songs of hope to remind herself and others of God’s promises, she did not know how these stories would end.

“When I wrote the songs, the stories were not neatly wrapped up,” Holcomb said.

“We had not gotten to the nice bow on top of the end of the story. And honestly, I don’t know that there’s a nice bow to put on top of suffering like that.”

While Holcomb has always been a songwriter, she was adamantly opposed to pursuing a musical career when she was young.

Because of her father’s job, she grew up immersed in the music industry and aware of the difficulties that came with a career in music.

“I swore that I would never be a musician because I was not enamored at all with being famous,” Holcomb said.

“What I saw as a kid was that career just means your parents have to leave.”

And so Holcomb received her master’s in education at the University of Tennessee and became an English teacher.

While in school, she met her future husband Drew Holcomb.

When her husband convinced her to tour with his band Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors, she thought she would just tour for a year and return to teaching.

“What we thought would be a year-long diversion turned into the last decade of our life,” Holcomb said.

Holcomb said the band had little success during their first three years of touring.

When their van broke down, Holcomb said she and her husband were ready to quit.

But the band hit a turning point when the show “Parenthood” featured their song
“Live Forever.”

“That song kind of broke everything open for us,” Holcomb said.

“All these people started coming to our shows that had never been before. With that money, we were able to fix our van. And so we call it the ‘Parenthood’ van.”

Holcomb toured with Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors from 2005 to 2013.

But in 2012, the couple’s firstborn daughter Emmylou was born, causing the Holcombs to rethink their hectic lifestyle.

“She had been to 32 states and Canada by the time she was six months old,” Holcomb said.

“She was in a car seat six hours a day traveling from city to city.”

Holcomb then decided to leave the band to stay home with her daughter.

Meanwhile, she had released two solo EPs, “Magnolia EP” and “With You Now.”

Although she initially did not plan to pursue a solo career in music, Holcomb felt called to share more of her songs on a full-length record.

Holcomb started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $40,000 in 50 days for “As Sure as the Sun.”

“I literally wanted to throw up before it went live,” Holcomb said.

“The night before I was on my face, saying, ‘God, I’ll say yes if you want me to, but I’m scared.’”

But within two days, Holcomb had reached her Kickstarter goal.

“As Sure as the Sun” released Feb. 18, 2014, was the No. 2 Christian album on Billboard charts and received critical acclaim from publications like CCM Magazine.

Three years later, Holcomb is raising two children while touring for “Red Sea Road.”

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors is also on tour for their latest record “Souvenir,” which released March 24.

Holcomb said she and her husband try to coordinate their schedules so that they are home at the same time.

Since Holcomb is not signed to a label, she can control how much time she spends on tour.

“Basically, the balance looks like holding both my music career and my family in front of the Lord with open hands,” Holcomb said.

Holcomb, a self-identified “recovering perfectionist,” feels called to be open about her struggles whether she is on stage with her acoustic guitar or writing songs at home.

Holcomb said someone comes to her after almost every show compelled to share their story with her.

“There’s something about music that is really beautiful in the way that it is a bridge builder,” Holcomb said.

“If I can be honest about the brokenness in my own story and about seeking God in the midst of that, it helps other people feel like they’re known in their own brokenness.”

Covey is a news reporter.