Scott Laytham and Karl Holmes Duo Bring a Wide Range of Musical Styles to St. Charles County Fair

When the Scott Laytham and Karl Holmes Duo play the St. Charles County Fair 6-8:30 p.m. today in Wentzville’s , listeners may think Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Tom Jones and other top singers have joined them.

The reason for this is because Holmes, who has spent 15 years performing with Laytham, has an uncanny ability as a vocal impressionist.

"He sounds exactly like them," Laytham said. "When we do shows and stuff, he’s the best person I’ve ever seen do (impressions). If he does Louis Armstrong, you close your eyes, you can’t tell it’s not him. He might do Rod Stewart, and it’s a totally different voice – he’ll sound just like Rod Stewart. He might do Prince, or Michael Jackson, he just does hundreds of voices like that."

Laytham, who plays keyboards and guitar and also sings, was blown away the first time he heard Holmes sing.

"He just floored me," Laytham said. "I thought, ‘Boy, this guy is really talented.’"

In serendipitous timing, the guys in Laytham’s band were retiring, and Holmes was being underused.

"The band he was working with before was not using his talent at all," he said. "All he was singing was R&B tunes. He’s a great R&B singer, but that’s all he was ever singing. When I heard him I thought, ‘This guy can do so much more than what he’s doing.’ So I saw that ability in him. He was a little hesitant at first, but once he got going down that track he was all gung-ho."

The list of vocal impressions Holmes can render also includes Johnny Cash, Barry White, Alan Jackson, Johnny Mathis, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Nat "King" Cole and The Temptations, doing all five voices by himself. Holmes has "an almost photographic memory for lyrics" and can also do spoken voices like the Crocodile Hunter, Laytham said.

The duo will perform country, rock, oldies, standards, jazz, Motown and reggae. The shorter list is what audiences won’t hear them play.

"We don’t do any filthy rap songs, and we don’t do any heavy metal," Laytham said. "We literally do everything in between."

They only play a little Top 40.

"We try to pick classic songs that everyone can relate to, songs that have been around for a while," he said. "Especially songs that you don’t hear other bands playing. Because there are a lot of good songs out there that you don’t get to hear. We try to pick a lot of songs like that, where people say, ‘Wow, I haven’t heard that song in years, that’s a great song.’ I’m always kind of big about trying to pick stuff you don’t normally get to hear, that are just great songs."

Holmes doesn’t play an instrument, which means Laytham wears several hats during shows.

"On our normal shows, I play keyboards, guitar, I’m singing, running the sound board, and running lights with my feet at the same time," Laytham said. "I may get a little bit of a break that night because I’m thinking they’ll have a light man there, but I stay very busy."

While Laytham calls himself a "very good singer," he said Holmes is "like from a different planet" he’s so good. Audiences are amazed at what Holmes can do.

"The one thing we get consistently is that jaw-dropping kind of thing when Karl does some of those voices," Laytham said. "I tell you what we get a lot, quite honestly, is people don’t think Karl is really singing. That’s what I get all the time. So I’ll tell Karl, ‘Hey, go sit at their table.’ Because people will see that and say there’s no way he can do that many voices. So literally I’ll have to get him out in the crowd so people realize, ‘Yes, that is really him singing.’ We get that all the time."

Laytham recalled a pool party where they played indoors but placed speakers so people at the pool could also hear.

"So there were people who came in who had been out there swimming for an hour or two, and they thought it was the radio playing inside," he said. "They came in and they were stunned that it was actually Karl singing."

Plus, Laytham does a lot of advance work to make the duo sound like a larger group.

"I’m really picky about my arrangements," he said. "Like my keyboard, I program all the drums ahead of time. I put an extra string of brass in so it sounds like a five- or six-piece band. It doesn’t sound like a little rinky-dink duo – it sounds a lot bigger. So all the sax solos, the instrumental solos – all those things are actually played on the keyboard. That kind of amazes people, because I’m making a lot of sounds out of the keyboard."

Laytham’s musical versatility – he also plays trombone, flute, saxophone and more – serves him well when he composes music for commercials, video games and planetarium sky shows.

"Obviously, when you’re doing a 30-second commercial for a radio station, they can’t afford to bring in a symphony orchestra," he said. "But I’ve gotten to the point where I can do it on the keyboard and get very close to that sound."

Laytham loves the excitement of performing live.

"The whole back and forth energy thing is fun to see," he said. "I think the nicest thing Karl and I get to do because of the songs we play is seeing families – you might get multi-generations. You might get a grandmother, a grandson and his kids, and they’re all having a great time. It’s very nice – I like seeing that family unit at a show, where everyone is laughing and dancing and carrying on. That’s fun to see, for me. Karl’s the same way."

He also enjoys what music can mean to listeners.

"Music has strong ties to memories," he said. "You can tell when you do some of these older songs, every now and then you look out in the crowd, someone might have a tear in their eye. They might be crying, or they might be smiling or laughing. The music has such a strong (connection to) memory, it’s fun to see the reaction you get from people."

Fair tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for children 6-12 and free for kids under 6. Ticket price includes carnival rides, entertainment and parking. There will be a wide assortment of food booths and additional entertainment, plus 4-H contests.

For details, see the St. Charles County Fair web site.