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Winter Park: Musical conversation continues to evolve

by Cyndi PalmerSky-Hi Daily News

Matt & Willy of band One Time Experience are gearing up to put on two performances this weekend in the Fraser Valley. The first is a free concert at 9 p.m. Friday at the Winter Park Pub. The second show follows on Saturday, starting around 10 p.m. at Buckets Saloon, also in Winter Park. There is a $5 cover for this one.Playing a mix of original numbers and covers from a variety of artists, listeners will hear music from a plethora of genres, including rock, blues, country, funk and bluegrass. This dual acoustic guitar show is best described as an acoustic jam, combining high-energy playing and tasteful vocal harmonies, with a little comedy thrown in for good measure.Matt Holliday grew up with music in his life, picking up the guitar for the first time at 8 years old. Without music, the world is a boring place, he said. Early morning piano lessons at 8, quickly gave way, thankfully, to afternoon guitar lessons a few years later for Chris Willy Williamson. Willy then went on to play bass in high school and college bands and didn’t really pick it up again until he ran into Holliday. Sometime in the latter half of 1998, Holliday, playing solo after the breakup of his local band Logjam, was performing at what was then La Taqueria. Williamson, who met Holliday during some open jams the previous year, was in the audience with some friends. Williamson noticed that he and Holliday knew many of the same songs, and after some encouragement from those same friends, both musicians closed the evening together on stage.Over the course of the following winter, Williamson would appear from time to time at more of Holliday’s shows, mainly at the Drunken Frenchman. In the summer of 1999, at the Winter Park Pub, they officially began playing as a duo. We could be found almost every Sunday in the Pub’s beer garden, entertaining the afternoon crowd, which sometimes consisted of only the bartenders and the band member’s girlfriends.Fortunately, the news got around, Williamson said, and by the end of the summer some new faces were showing up, and some momentum began to build. (One of the new faces was Ian Morlock, who had just arrived in the Valley and would later join the band. He is now the drummer for One Time, with Holliday, Williamson, and bassist Tom Camillo.)Over the course of that following winter, Williamson and Holliday continued to hone their act, adding new songs, both original and covers, building a repertoire of more than 200 songs. They also began to build an impressive fanbase, putting on high-energy performances filled with a variety of music and shenanigans.The two have been playing together for almost a decade as a duo acoustic guitar act. Their shows, Williamson said, encourage listeners to get involved with the party, dance, and truly enjoy the moment. He said he strives to write songs that listeners can relate to as well as dance to. And, at the end of the night, if they have had half as much fun as we have, then all is well.Since those early days, Williamson and Holliday have played hundreds of shows together – as a duo, with band One Time, and everywhere in between. Their musical conversations continue to evolve, and the new songs keep coming. On a side note, their band One Time will be returning to action in late December with tickets for a New Year’s Eve show at Untamed Steakhouse going on sale soon.Williamson said, he and Holliday look forward to seeing you at the shows.


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