Entering the field of topical songwriting after the activism of the 1960s, Holly Near promoted a variety of left-wing political causes with music that touched on folk, rock, and the musical theater, starting in the early 1970s. Beginning with her work against the Vietnam War, she turned to radical lesbian feminism before again expanding her concerns to include international issues.
A red-diaper baby of leftist parents, Near grew up on a ranch in the small Northern California town of Potter Valley. At age seven, she sang at a VFW talent show, attracting the attention of a voice teacher; at ten, she auditioned for Columbia Records. She attended UCLA for a year, 1967-68, then dropped out and moved to New York, where she studied singing and dance. Returning to Los Angeles, she was cast in her first film, Angel, Angel, Down We Go, released in the summer of 1969.
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