Chris Whitley Forum

Chris Whitley

Forum

long way around... roller dome... downed our whiskey and cokes... the song came together... it came easily

>>By ksk (Wednesday, 4 Dec 2002 22:57)

He's still da mon'

>>By es-135 john (Thursday, 20 Mar 2003 22:16)

Glad to hear he is still producing ... saw him at Raoul's a few years back .. his songs run endlessly through my head. (Thursday, 20 Mar 2003 22:17)

Someone described him as the 'Picasso of the Guitar'. You couldn't put it any better!!. A real artist.

>>By Jcee (Wednesday, 2 Apr 2003 03:44)

Chris Whitley is the most amazing artist I have ever seen. There are many talented musicians in the world, but few can present a crystal clear window to the heart as this man.

>>By j. pasley (Wednesday, 9 Apr 2003 04:51)

is this a new site? I've been a fan since i saw him for the
very first time. I saw an acoustic show in Holland
(Nijmegen-Doornroosje), and it was amazing!...... got all his
records, I hope he comes back to Holland very soon. A
RUNNING TRAIN OF BROKEN STRINGS. . . .That's the
way it should be! Succes with the site!!

>>By Robskes (Saturday, 21 Jun 2003 23:11)

The closest thing to Robert Johnson since.

>>By Herbtrane (Thursday, 13 May 2004 10:06)

Pure Genius. May he rest in Peace

>>By Da Blues (Saturday, 2 Sep 2006 11:53)

Lloydy Da Blues put me onto CW, & yes he's very good & well worth investigating. Really naturally talented.

>>By nonyeb (Saturday, 16 Dec 2006 22:06)

Slowly getting the recognition he most thoroughly deserves, albeit too late.

Hands off you fucking bandwagoners!!!!

>>By Da Blues (Thursday, 29 Mar 2007 10:41)

Christopher Becker Whitley: 2 years gone

'Got my license for the flat earth, everything is arranged'

Miss you Brother

>>By MigrantWing (Tuesday, 20 Nov 2007 21:21)

www.christopher-b-whitley.com

New website dedicated to the man created by his fiance Susann Buerger. Still under construction but a beautiful and personal insight into, in my humble opinion, the greatest musician to have ever graced this planet

>>By Narcotic_Prayer (Tuesday, 15 Jan 2008 22:17)

Chris Whitley - On Air

There are the fortunate few who really encountered Chris Whitley's music during his brief lifetime (he passed away from lungcancer in November of 2005); for everyone else, recordings like this are gifts. Whitley's last official offering was Reiter In, recorded as he was dying -- he was a pauper, an imperfect businessman who had been deeply exploited by unscrupulous labels and "handlers." The record was a way to leave something for his daughter, Trixie, a brilliant singer, pianist, and songwriter in her own right, and was the last we thought we'd get from him. On Air was recorded on September 8, 2003 at Radio Bremen. It showcases the artist many of us remember best: a guy with a beat up vintage National Steel guitar and a stompbox for his foot, playing his songs with all the revelatory passion and pathos he'd written them with.

The recording quality is flawless, the vibe in the room and its sonics are picked up perfectly, and Whitley's otherworldly engagement with his guitar and voice are captured intimately and forcefully. Performed in this way, his own vintage tunes carry the immediacy that they were written with, the contain a definite raw psychosexual spiritual magnetism, whether it's "Kick the Stones," the spooky blues of "Clear Blue Sky," "Shadowland," or "New Lost World," or "Hotel Vast Horizon," just to name a few. This vision of his, with the world as a darkly magical place for caged and restless spirits to wander through and connect with one another in any way they could, was also revealed in his covers. There are a number of them here, including Muddy Waters' "Light Rain," the Doors' "Crystal Ship," Bob Dylan's "Fourth Time Around," and Buddy Holly's "Well...All Right." But the real deal here is that Whitley made no distinctions -- in performance at least -- between his own songs and those he loved. He performed them all with a fervent desire to reveal their meanings, to release them to his audiences through the ritual of playing live. What On Air also offers is yet another view of the sheer originality and technical acumen Whitley possessed as a guitarist. One of the reasons that his albums were all over the place stylistically and in terms of production is because he understood exactly what he was doing as a player. He could lay seven different guitar tracks down on a given song in the studio, because when he played live he could find a way to pull it off without gimmicks. All of Chris Whitley's music was rooted in Delta and Texas blues, no matter how it eventually came off on his studio recordings. Here, that's obvious, whether he's rattling a slide as he plays a completely separate melody line with his other fingers, or whether he's crooning a spooky, seductive ballad. It all sounds like Robert Johnson meets Blind Lemon Jefferson meets the drone of Lightnin' Hopkins meets the bravado and roar of Muddy Waters and the sly humor of Dylan wrapped in the apocalyptic visions of Bill Fay.

For Whitley's fans, this is essential listening; it's the measure of the artist in a sympathetic venue, allowing all of his prodigious gifts to surface. On Air will edify anyone who takes the trouble to encounter it. Those of us who followed his work can only on hope this is the first of many such tapes to surface.

>>By Breath Of Shadows (Tuesday, 24 Mar 2009 20:06)

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