1. This Is The Story
2. The Ripping Sky
3. Oh So Blue
4. Lost And Spaced
5. I Can't Take Too Much More
6. Welcome Wagon
7. Hollow Day
8. Like Some Wind-Up Toy
9. Tell Me Something
10. With Each New Year
11. It All Came Down To You
12. My Little Dream
13. Love Is In The Air
14. Not Enough
15. One Simple Thing
16. Headstand Of The Mind

click on any title for a short preview

immediate download $9.99

" "I'm Not Here Right Now", Andy Hollinger's debut CD, is a collection of pop-rock songs that recall an era when musicians could sing, write good songs with catchy guitar licks, and still manage to be interesting and unique. Hollinger walks the fine line of writing accessible songs without sounding like what's happening on the radio. He is reminiscent of singer/songwriter/guitarists that have preceded him such as Warren Zevon, Neil Young, and Paul Weller. When he sings, he sounds honest and earnest, like the underdog in the big fight that has captured the hearts of the crowd. However, at times Hollinger's style is a little hokey and unpolished. Then again, that just might be part of his appeal. Like a friendly face in the crowd, Hollinger's music feels almost instantly at home and comfortable in any situation. From the very beginning of the record, he draws people in with lines like "This is the story my grandmother told / Her fierce eyes glistened like the coastline's rocky shoals." It's a great entrance into a song, and a good reason to sit through until the end, as the imagery conjures memories of nights of tales told by the fire. While many of his songs have a refreshing depth to them, many of them are simply foot-stomping fun. In "It All Came Down to You", he sings "The first time I saw you, you had pigtails / You grew so fast. Now you've got pink toenails." While pigtails and toenails are everyday things, most people can't sing about them and make it work, yet Hollinger does. In "Like Some Wind-up Toy," he sings about a relationship that is full of head games and confusion. While this is not a new song subject, his approach is musically lighthearted, yet lyrically witty and truthful. He sings, "Don't be asking questions you don't want the answer for / I can't help myself, you put me on a shelf / I wanted so much more." Andy Hollinger may not seem particularly remarkable at first, but his voice is unique, his songs are catchy, and his arrangements are fun. It's likely this record will soon cause a foot to start tapping along and a mouth to start humming his memorable melodies."

- Laura Brereton, Northeast Performer Magazine, Jan. 2006

"Warren Zevon soundalike. That being said, there's some kind of audio charisma going on with Andy's work that I can't deny. The backing band(s) brings to mind this list to me: Crazy Horse, Don Henley, Grateful Dead, Creedence, Crosby Stills Nash & Young. Nice amounts of slide guitar in the arrangements, and Andy's Telecaster playing brings out a confidence and love for the sound of that '60s-'70s American rock vintage, a little countrified. You might have enjoyed Andy Hollinger at the 1969 Woodstock, if he had been alive and you had too. I hear some songs that sound more refined, both in songwriting and production, which tells me that this album was recorded over quite a bit of time, and with different players. Could be the liner notes tipped me off, too. As a collective work, it's good and listenable. No craziness here, insane music fans, just a musician with two feet solidly on the ground. I'd like to hear Andy's follow up."

- Mike Loce, The Noise, March 2005

"With the same charm and keen eye on detail as the late, great Warren Zevon, singer-songwriter-guitarist Andy Hollinger delivers a great collection of jangling pop songs on his new album "I'm Not Here Right Now...". Sporting a charismatic lead voice and some well-played instrumentation, Hollinger covers all the bases on this disc.
From the country-tinged "Oh So Blue" with its fine slide guitar solo, to the Tele twang of "I Can't Take Too Much More," to the Pink Panther inspired "Hollow Day," and on to the perfected pop snarl of "One Simple Thing," Hollinger exhibits not only his prowess as a musician but his gifts as a songrwriter.
A roomful of talented musicians were also enlisted by Hollinger to add their specialized gifts. Folks like George Hicks, Ruby Bird, Henry Nigro, Dennis Roach, Karl Haakonsen, Mitch Nelin, Glenn Williams, Roger Christie, Nate Darden, Mark Dec, Budd Marvel, Steve O'Callaghan, Warren Senders, Tim Casey, Jamie Formato, and Bob McCloskey all inject their respective creative aptitudes to this well-produced and recorded CD."

- Doug Sloan, Metronome Magazine April 2005
(this album was chosen as one of Doug's "Top Five" for the month!)

Beating the Skins, Swinging the Strings

- Ed Symkus, West Roxbury Transcript, December 13, 2006

Roslindale-based singer-songwriter-guitarist Andy Hollinger has a head filled with musical memories, from the sounds playing in his home when he was growing up in Pittsburgh to early days of seeing live music, from the shakiness of performing alone on a stage to his choice of performing formats.
Hollinger actually played drums long before he picked up a guitar.
“My next oldest brother started playing drums and took some lessons, and was more into the marching thing,” he says. “He had one of those big old marching drums, and when he kind of abandoned that, I got interested.”
But because his father was, as Hollinger puts it, conservative, he had to earn every part of what would eventually be a full drum kit.
“I started taking jazz drumming lessons at about 11 or 12,” he says. “My dad bought me a snare drum and said as long as I kept up with the lessons, I could get another piece. So the next piece was a high hat, then the kick drum, one piece at a time. And I ended up with a whole kit. I played drums in a jazz combo in high school, but by then I’d already started playing the guitar.”
And by then he’d already been listening to all kinds of music. His dad played the bugle in the army in WWII, and had been a trumpet player.
“So we had the ubiquitous Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass,” he deadpans, referring to music played in the house. “I also heard Al Hirt, and a lot of classical music. My oldest brother was into the Four Seasons, but the Beatles were what did it to me. And when I was taking drum lessons, I was listening to jazz — Elvin Jones and others.”
His appreciation for live performance got ratcheted up when, as a high schooler, he saw Duke Ellington play.
“He came to our church and did one of his religious concerts,” he says, and the excitement can be heard in his voice when he brings up that memory. “Oh, man, that was incredible.”
His reaction wasn’t quite the same when he started doing solo guitar gigs in his freshman year in college.
“That was terrifying,” he recalls, “getting up there alone. Even now I would rather have a band; it’s much more fun.”
Yes, there were bands. Hollinger came to Boston after earning an English degree at Williams College, with the idea of private guitar study. What followed was playing in a number of bands — Send Me to Camp, Distant Cousins and The Bends, the name of which he says is a combination of the Beatles and the Band.
He also went to Berklee College to study production and engineering, and landed a two-year gig as an assistant engineer at Blue Jay Recording Studio. A right place-right time-right person scenario hooked him up with the Lowbudget Records crowd of musicians from Roslindale and surrounding towns. He met local saxophonist Bob McCloskey, lost touch with him, bumped into him again down the road, and was then introduced to local rock legend Mr. Curt, and Bill and Ruby Mason, who make up the duo Bird Mancini. After getting together with Tim Casey and Glenn Williams, Hollinger played with them for a while in Random Access Memory.
“I met Pat when he had Mayflower Music,” he says of Pat MacDonald, his current guitarist performing partner and the long-gone music shop in Roslindale.
“He kept trying to get me to buy a Martin [guitar], but I couldn’t justify the price,” he adds, laughing. “But I’d walk into the shop and shoot the breeze with him on weekends, and I asked if he wanted to get together to do some playing. It turned out we’re both Pennsylvania boys. And it turned out we’re both left-handed and we both play guitar right-handed.”
Somehow, in the middle of all of this musical abundance, Hollinger, whose day job involves him with a software development group in the telecommunications industry, also managed to make his first CD, “I’m Not Here Right Now,” most of which was recorded in his home studio.
Featuring tastes of pop and rock and folk and a few in-between genres, as well as guest appearances by gobs of musicians from the local scene, the album has Hollinger on lead vocals, background vocals and guitar. Outstanding tracks include “Hollow Day,” “Oh So Blue,” and “Like Some Wind-Up Toy.”
He hopes to have another one done by the end of next year.
“I’ve got a ton of songs and basic drum tracks for seven or eight of them,” he says. “And I’m trying to get some stuff out of my studio so I can use it again.”
And at least for now he’s sticking with guitar rather than drums.

“I still have a kit in my basement,” he says. “And I still go down and bash away at it, but I have it there with the hope of getting somebody else over here to play it.”