(Gleason, Holly) Holly Gleason is a Nashville-based music critic, writer, and artist development consultant who loves songwriters, roots music, country, r&b, and very early rap, as well as life moments, fame and its impact on who we are. She’s written for Rolling Stone, the LA Times, New York Times, Playboy, and Oxford American, among many other publications. Gleason is the co-writer of the number one hit by country music star Kenny Chesney, Better as a Memory. Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music Changed Our Lives (University of Texas Press), edited by Gleason, presents deeply personal essays from award-winning writers on femme fatales, feminists, groundbreakers, and truth tellers. From Maybelle Carter to Dolly Parton, k.d. lang to Taylor Swift—these artists provide pivot points, truths, and doses of courage for women writers at every stage of their lives. Reba McEntire writes, “These personal stories—from women, about women and the way music impacts lives—are entertaining, thought-provoking, and, most of all, memorable.”
