Holy Water & Whiskey (Bruce and Maggie Washburne and Scott Altenbach) started playing music together in Albuquerque in 2003. We began with bluegrass gospel, because that’s that best way to work on harmonies. Then, we started playing other tunes – old folk songs, Guy Clark, Sons of the Pioneers, and even wrote some songs ourselves.
When we tried to come up with a name, we thought about the common threads in the music and came up with Holy Water, Salt Water, and Whiskey. That got shortened to Holy Water & Whiskey. It seemed appropriate because, at our age, we seek balance in all things!
We didn’t pick that name to offend anyone. Our Irish friends say Holy Water and Whiskey are the same thing. Who knows – it’s helped us make some friends and have a great time. We know we are blessed to still be singing and it’s our goal to have a great time as long as we can.
HWW has always focused on tight harmonies, solid instrumentation, and beautiful a cappella songs.
From 2018 to 2022, we played as a trio with the phenomenal fiddle player and vocalist Amy Blackburn