If you are a local, Clint Holmes is among the best-known faces in Las Vegas, thanks to his seemingly endless willingness to donate time for benefits of all kinds. One recent weekend, he offered his voice as well as his Clint Holmes Showroom at Harrah's to host an event to raise money for a program named after the late great singer Joe Williams, and performed at a benefit for another cause the next night.
As a result, Las Vegans have had an opportunity to discover and embrace the talented Holmes. Holmes is consistently named best singer in Las Vegas, and his show is the one that locals love to recommend to out-of-town guests as a must-see Vegas event.
Of course, that doesn't mean that Holmes' show is a throwback to old Vegas: There are no showgirls, no impersonations (unless you count a few bars sung as Johnny Mathis), and at no point is "Viva Las Vegas" performed. In fact, where a Sammy Davis (Holmes' hero) or Dean Martin would fill a showroom with their already-famous personae, Holmes hosts his audiences on a journey introducing them to his own life.
When he was a child in Buffalo, N.Y., Holmes' parents--a white British opera-singer mother and an African-American jazz-singer father--created an environment for him that always revolved around music.
"My mother taught me how to sing correctly, and my father taught me how to enjoy it," Holmes likes to say.
Of course, Holmes' songs do not just reflect his past. One of the highlights of the show is a new song, "If Not Now When?" that was inspired by a recent health crisis.
"It is one of two or three songs in my life that just came to me. The melody, the lyric, the chord structure was all there in my head."
Though Holmes wrote the lyric down on paper at once, the music had to await his recovery.
"When I was strong enough to get up and go down to the piano, then I wrote it out. It is a simple melody, and it is a very simple song, more of a rock 'n' roll song than a lot of songs that I write."
As Holmes has gone from a new talent carrying the torch of old Vegas to becoming an icon himself of the new Vegas, his show keeps evolving.
"The music in the show now is the most personal of any show I've done. I am taking this freedom now to do more original material. I am taking more risks now."
Audiences feel such a bond with Holmes that he is one of the few performers who can count on leaving the stage to a standing ovation rather than to the sight of people rushing to be first in the taxi line in front of the casino.