TORONTO — Michael Holt, left, took seven years to put together his latest album, Windows. But that’s because he wanted it to be a thing of beauty, he said, something that would truly reflect where the artist’s deep, spiritual sensibilities lay.

Anybody listening to the CD will likely agree it was worth the wait, and then some.

Holt, a former member of the popular 
U.S. indie group The Mommyheads, has crafted a sublime record that
mixes his considerable talent and musical influences – including but
not limited to the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Ravel, Inti Illimani, Ron
Sexsmith and obscure Russian composer Alexander Scriabin –  into a tasty, radio-friendly yet still challenging work.

Holt purposefully tried to meld classical and pop-rock forms together on the album and the outcome is inspiring – from the opening track, a gorgeous rendition of Scriabin’s Prelude 15 for Piano that flows seamlessly into the plaintive Holt composition Way Up Past to the end tracks of the acoustic guitar ballad Gold and Holt’s Prelude for Sand, a haunting composition for piano, cello and viola.

In between, Holt gives the listener some tongue-in-cheek fun with songs such as All the Michaels in the World – “it’s about all the facets of myself who loved my wife,” he told The CJN – and You Are Still Here For Me, a pop ode to his dead grandparents and the happy childhood memories of time spent at his family’s summer home in Cape Cod.

Much of the theme of the album deals with the ongoing separation between him and his wife of 11 years, Cora, a subject that is of deep concern and confusion to him.

“We still love each other, and we want to honour that love. I think people are able to be friends and feel love for their exes,” he said. “This album, lyrically, is about a marriage coming gracefully to a close. It’s about asking what we all sometimes think, ‘Am I really into the person I’m with?’ [The song] Gold is about when we started seeing other people.”

Holt is the first to admit he’s a man and an artist in a state of reinvention, finally finding his own true musical voice and more importantly, his true life.

“I had a near-death experience a couple of years ago that… made me ask, ‘Am I really living my life the way I want?’” he said. The answer was no.

Windows, he said, marks the beginning of his “real commitment to my own music. I concentrated on just making the album I wanted to make, sad and beautiful. I’m really into beautiful music right now.”

A native of New York City, Holt, who turns 40 this February, has called Toronto home since 1999, when he moved there to accompany his Canuck wife back north after first meeting her while playing in Toronto  on tour with the Mommyheads in 1991.

He comes from a family of Jewish, atheist, left-wing political advocates, he declares. His parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were all involved in the socialist movement, civil rights and union activity in the United States from the early days of the 20th century.

Though he didn’t follow in the same political vein, Holt comes by his musical talent honestly. His mother was a folksinger/activist for a brief time, he said.

“I remember, I used to sing myself to sleep when I was a toddler, making up my own melodies,” Holt said. “I started piano when I was three. But I’m mostly self-taught.”

Holt was also always interested in spirituality from an early age.

“I’m the first person in my family to believe in God,” he said.

While in college, Holt studied eastern religions and delved into Taoism and Buddhism. It’s there, he said, that while experimenting with drugs, he had a revelatory moment where he discovered “the god within. The aspect of myself that is divine.”

But recently, after feeling overworked  and stressed, Holt made a decision to observe Shabbat.

“I do it in my own way,” he said. “But I knew I needed to have dedicated down time. So I took Saturdays off. I didn’t initially conceive it as the Sabbath. But that’s what it’s turned into. It’s about the  time to put aside the worldly concerns that keep your mind so occupied… and open up this space where you can appreciate life.”

Holt said plans are in the works for a Mommyheads reunion tour later this year. But for the time being, he’s focusing on promoting his new solo effort.

While he continues to survive financially by giving private piano lessons, living off an inheritance from his grandparents and aggressively selling his CD on his seemingly relentless tour schedule, Holt’s hoping to finally break out into the big time with Windows.

The album will be going out for distribution to CBC Radio soon, and with the added exposure, Holt hopes his music can reach a new audience.

“My goal is to get to a place where my music career can support itself, for it to become self-sustaining,” he said. “To be honest, I want more recognition. But in a more general sense I think the goal is to create more beauty and add it to the world.”

Mission accomplished.

New fans and old can catch Holt and his ensemble of 22 musicians at the launch concert for Windows on Jan. 25 at The Music Gallery, 197 John St., with opening act singer-songwriter Tanya Philipovich.

“It’s gonna be an orchestral show. It’ll be a lush ensemble… a  fun, exciting extravaganza,” Holt said.

For more information, visit www.michaelholtmusic.com.