The History of popular music is full with forgotten siblings, often no less talented but overshadowed with more prominent cousins. In most of the cases the simple fact is that path has already been blazed by original artists who made their mark and everybody else was just a sound-alike. It is a profession where being good is not good enough - only true originals have staying power, so naturally sound-alike rarely stand a chance. And there is also a matter of sibling rivalry - Aretha Franklin never even gave a chance to her sisters, but "graciously" used them as backing vocals and songwriters. And what about good intentioned family connections that never led anywhere - Frank Sinatra son, Nat King Cole's brother, John Lennon's son, Barbra Streisand's sister ... all those people sounded too close to their famous relatives to survive more than passing curiosity.
Georgia Holt was apparently wannabe actress whose main claim to fame was giving birth to Cher - she has recorded this country album in 1980. with Elvis Presley's backing musicians (James Burton, Glen Hardin, Larry Muhoberac, Jerry Scheff, Ronnie Tutt) that promptly forgot about it and left the tapes in her garage. It was Cher who pulled the connections to have it re-produced, re-mastered and finally self-released.
The album is actually surprisingly enjoyable in its right - Holt sounds just like her famous daughter (somewhat mellower) and it was a good idea to have album starting with their duet on a song "I'm Just Your Yesterday" - the first voice we hear is familiar sound of Cher, than her mother comes in and the blend of their voices is effective, emotional and touching (almost hard to say who is who). The rest of the album is actually fine - it is a collection of traditional country ballads and classic covers ("Crying Time", "Love Me Tender", "I Wonder Where You Are Tonight") played well, produced well and sung by the voice we all know, but with a twist - basically it could pass as a Cher's country album. Naturally it is a one-off and curios gimmick but gives Holt long-wished for celebrity and success (it is on US Top Country Charts right now) and not only is a pretty novelty album but nice, loving gesture from her daughter to have it finally released (Cher had also arranged for some highly visible TV duet performances).
In all honesty, she does sound a little too much like Cher and would probably not have a chance as competition in a business that already has one, however as a loving gesture and nice curiosity, it works surprisingly well.
Highlights: "Love Me Tender", "Crying Time".
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