From:
Robin Merritt
ArtFRONT Presentations
(423) 756-4827
Appearing @ Barking Legs Theatre, 1307 Dodds Ave. Chattanooga
Friday April. 4th with Bombadil, Charles Theodore Zerner & Caveat Emperor
CD, “Refugee Blues”
I usually don’t go out of my way looking to book “Singer Songwriter” types. I usually want to hear more than just a guy with a guitar and some songs he wrote. So it’s needless to say I was very impressed with this full length CD by Chris Volpe. After filtering through dozens of bands and recordings over the last couple of weeks, looking for the right people to book in the upcoming ArtFRONT Concert series at Barking Legs Theater, I found Chris Volpe’s music to be a very welcome relief from a lot of intensity and combined with the sunshine streaming through the office window, it was an uplifting as well as relaxing experience without an ounce of schmaltz or over sentimentality that folk-singer songwriters often get labeled with. Not withstanding that his voice sounds a bit like Paul Simon backed up by Nick Drake on guitar.
And apparently some other people
have liked Chris Volpe as well because he won the studio time to record "Refugee
Blues" when he was awarded "best song" at the West Coast
Songwriting Association's (WCSA) contest. All 15 songs on the CD were recorded
live in one take, with no overdubs, editing, or effects which adds credence to
Volpe's innate music abilities. He is also earning recognition by winning the
2006 Folk Album of the Year through the Independent Music Awards (IMA) for
"Refugee Blues". The judges for this competition, to name a few, were
Norah Jones, Melissa Etheridge, and Bill Wyman. He is also the winner of the
Singer/Songwriter Awards, an international competition based in London (We Are
Listening), which flew Volpe out to London for a week to record with producer
Steve Williams (Sting, Eric Clapton.)
He has also received finalist awards and honorable mentions in the John
Lennon Songwriting Contest, the USA Songwriters Competition, and the
International Songwriting Contest.
And as far as my own
awards go I seem to keep finding more and more cuts from “Refugee Blues” that
would sound really well playing over the WUTC 88.1 airwaves while imagining the
station’s genteel listeners smiling and swinging their legs off the porch swing
while sipping on the year’s first mint lemonade.
Suggested radio
tracks are.
#2. Wait “til Tomorrow #3 1849 Revisited #4 The Bandwagon Farm #5. Where the Rubber meets the road. #6. Your Little Toy #7. Lay Low #11. Ashtray memories #12 Albuquerque (instrumental) # 13. Jersey Sun