Palmer started playing live gigs during the period she lived in Boston. She particularly enjoyed stripped-down shows at small clubs, and she still loves intimate engagements offering the opportunity for spontaneous chemistry with the audience. Also during her time in Boston, Palmer began to seriously delve into songwriting, and landed a demo deal with
Island Records. and met with a positive response from critics, and featured contributions from
Bill Frisell and
John Leventhal. Surrounding its release, Holly toured the U.S. and Europe opening for artists including
k.d. lang,
Shawn Colvin and
Paula Cole. In 1998, Holly went to
London and began recording what was intended to be her second disc for the label,
Tender Hooks, with producer
Howie B, who has also produced albums with
U2,
Björk, and
Robbie Robertson. She finished the album back in NYC with
David Kahne (
Regina Spektor,
Sublime,
The Bangles) producing two tracks. She amicably parted ways with
Reprise, though, and the album remained unreleased for the time being. In 1999,
David Bowie invited Palmer to sing background vocals on his album
Hours; At the end of 2006, Palmer returned to Los Angeles to recommence her songwriting partnership with Willis. They originally intended to compose songs for the follow-up to
Songs For Tuesday, but instead were inspired to write, perform, and record in full collaboration under the name
Bubbles & Cheesecake. The name refers to Willis and Palmer's respective "alter-egos," and their first official single and video as Bubbles & Cheesecake, "It's a Woman Thang", was introduced with the launch of their interactive multi-media website in October 2007. The Willis and Palmer/Bubbles & Cheesecake collaboration encompasses hand-made music, videos, art work, animation, merchandise, online characters, stories, games, all embedded into a social networking initiative. 2007 also marked the release
Songs For Tuesday on Bombshell Records. Palmer's fourth solo album, it was recorded live in front of an audience in a Los Angeles recording studio over the course of two days in September 2005. Among its highlights is the Willis-Palmer co-write "Girl in Lust", which, like "I Confess" from Holly's previous album, was later also recorded and performed by Bubbles & Cheesecake. Palmer co-produced
Songs For Tuesday with
Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M.) – featured on drums – and
Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck, Macy Gray, Ima Robot), the disc's bassist. The line-up also includes keyboardist
Roger Manning (Jellyfish, Beck) and guitarist
Lyle Workman (Beck, Todd Rundgren, Sting). Other song highlights include the bluesy "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know", the pop/R&B-flavored "I Will" (also featured in the 2005 Jessica Alba film
Into The Blue), "Your Love Is Gonna Kill Me" and "That's Why They Call It Rome", for which Palmer has also created a video. Palmer has contributed to a number of other recordings including singing background vocals on
Dave Navarro's album
Trust No One, writing and performing with
Dobie on the track "I'll Be Your Everything" from the electronica compilation
Burntprogress 1.1, and doing vocals and percussion on the disc 3 live set of
David Bowie's Bowie at the Beeb. Her cover of the
Bob Dylan song "
All I Really Wanna Do" was included on the
Party Of Five soundtrack ('96), and her compositions can also be heard in films including
According to Spencer ("Something Else"),
Forces of Nature ("A Rose By Any Other Name") and
The Price of Kissing ("Scandinavian Ladies"). Palmer co-wrote the theme song to 2013 television series
Mob City with
Mark Isham entitled "Hello Again" and performed it. She sang background vocals and played acoustic guitar for Broadway star
Idina Menzel (
Wicked,
Rent) on her
I Stand Tour. ==Discography==