Michelle Holder says she thanks God every day that she gets to do what she loves. By day, she’s a Realtor with Crye-Leike in Hixson, helping her clients from A to Z on all their needs. By night, she is a singing server at The Station House restaurant inside the Chattanooga Choo-Choo, and has been for 28 years.The beauty of these two careers is that together they allow Holder multiple opportunities to touch lives.
At the Station House, she gets to help guests enjoy their trip to Chattanooga with a special song. As a Realtor, she gets to help clients with their home goals to enjoy the beauty and resources of Chattanooga. Holder says, “It’s a process that you don’t look at for how much commission you can get, you look at it as a person you can take from A to Z and even become friends with.” Holder has been a native of Chattanooga for 36 years after moving from Florida when she was 11 years old. Even before then, she was always singing. During her senior year in high school, she auditioned for a show at McCallie, and was asked to join as one of the public school girls of their group. Through this, she was able to sing with them at the 1982 World’s Fair. Attending UTC, she was with the Singing Mocs and sang with them and Barry Manilow when he came to town. Although Holder liked school, she said she knew she wanted to perform.
She had never been to the Chattanooga Choo-Choo when a friend took her there in 1983, to the Station House restaurant, and told her this is where she needed to work. At 19 years old, she fell in love with the restaurant, auditioned, and has been there ever since.
While working at the Station House, she had her son and home schooled him from the sixth grade to the end of high school. When she hit 21 years at the Station House, she said she decided she wanted more than just singing there. Holder reconnected with a couple from Macon, Ga. whom she had sang at their wedding. The husband of the pair, Michael Harris, asked to manage Holder’s singing talent. This led to her first CD in 2003 titled “Heartfelt.” Holder was the first artist to be signed to Harris’s Backyard Records Inc. label, and Holder signed on as vice president of the corporation to help other independent artists have a chance to get their music heard.
Working at the Station House, Holder has the prime location to spot talent in Chattanooga; of the four artists signed to Backyard Records, three are from Chattanooga.
“For me, I love to create, love to be on the producing side and the artist side. I enjoy music and I will never stop doing it. I will always be involved in it one way or another,” Holder says. In 1996, Holder was the Tennessee state representative for a karaoke competition. In 2009, she was nominated as a top five vocalist in Chattanooga. She released a single last year called “Blue Sky Love,” set to be on her second full album called “Pause.” Recently, the video for her song, “Hurtin’ and Blue,” was named in the top 10 of MTV’s July “Ourstage’s” country video competition. Holder also received a letter of fan mail saying that this song inspired a woman to reconcile with her ex-husband and get remarried.
“For me, and as a singer, it’s just neat to be able to touch people like that with something you did…,” she adds, “Also, if they come to the Choo-Choo and are looking for a home, I can say ‘I’m your girl.’” Holder says she got into real estate almost a year ago because she loves people and is so much a part of things around the city that it just made sense. Many people have told her she got into real estate at a bad time, but she doesn’t think so. “I think it’s going to really start blossoming in the next couple of years. I think the American people have to understand that there is going to have to be a different way of spending,” she says. “There is some new things happening like trying to pass a law where you have to have 20 percent down for a home. Some say this will hurt real estate, but it may just make people realize if you want some real strong kind of equity you have to invest in it.”
Holder says that by living in North Chattanooga for 20 years, she has seen Chattanooga go through a real transition, and is exciting about what this means. “Right now, the economy is a little shaky but it’s an exciting time to be a Realtor because you are getting to see this transition, and if you just hang loose, watch it change, adjust with the times, and get through it, then you are sitting on the other side,” she says. Working for Crye-Leike is also exciting, Holder says, as the agency is very community oriented. During Christmas, Holder’s Hixson office took three families in need Christmas present, and in April the office got together and filled up huge barrels with toiletries for tornado victims. Holder says this giving back to the community and the sweet and nice personality of everyone at her office are reasons she chose to go with Crye-Leike.
Holder’s connection with the Station House also allows her to help tourists coming in that may be interested in buying a home. Not only is she able to tell them all about the offerings of Chattanooga, she also tells them that this is a great place to raise a family as she has done. Then she is able to knock their socks off with her beautiful country style singing voice. Holder says, “I hope that I always have my voice, because I love singing and never want to stop.”
Visit www.backyardrecords.net to see Holder’s “Hurtin’ and Blue” video.