About Me
A few reviews...
"Awesome. Chris is the the kind of guy who, if you're writing the song and you're playing him a riff, he comes up with a hook that's separate from the vocal melody, which makes a song like, wow—it gives it that much more." —Mike Ness
"When Chris Lawrence sat at the pedal steel, adding gorgeous trills to 'Rest of Our Lives'—from Mike Ness' solo debut, Cheating at Solitaire—it was pure Podunk poetry." —Rolling Stone
"Lawrence made the pedal steel cry ... And although the show was under his banner, Ness wasn’t greedy with the spotlight; he was content to let Lawrence take the lead as the flamboyant guitarist soloed, swinging his guitar over the heads at the foot of the stage." —Filter Magazine
"There were just enough acts eschewing the middle of the country road onboard to make Stagecoach ’08 a livable experience ... [including] punkeroo Mike Ness of Social Distortion, backed by a tuff-enuff band that included the invaluable Chris Lawrence on guitar and pedal steel.†— Chris Morris, LA City Beat
"Ness and his four-piece, mostly acoustic band delivered a solid [set] dominated by gritty honky-tonk — steel guitarist Chris Lawrence really shone on Carl Perkins' 'Let the Jukebox Keep on Playing,' a standout." —Houston Press
"You are a really great player, quite impressive!" -Noel Redding, bassist for the Jimi Hendrix Experience
"Guitarist Chris Lawrence calls to mind the sturm und twang of [Pete] Anderson and of Shaver the younger, and seems capable of standing with both." —Country Standard Time
“He's really a student of that early '60's Nashville stuff and also the early West Coast guys. He actually plays the steel guitar that was on a bunch of early Conway and Loretta and George Jones records. So, he knows what that instrument can do, and he uses it to its full capability.†—Dave Gonzalez (of the Paladins and Hacienda Bros)
"F*****G brilliant, mate!" —Kinks drummer Mick Avory, before handing Lawrence a pint after a show in England
SOME ARTISTS I HAVE PLAYED WITH, either onstage or in the studio:
Mike Ness, Sin City AllStars, Jim Lauderdale, Travis Howard, Claire Holley, Stonehoney, Patty Blee, Mike Stinson, Dallas Wayne, Jimmy Lee Carter (of Blind Boys of Alabama), Gaucho Gil (Jerry Giddens & Co. from Walking Wounded), Shooter Jennings, Willie deVille, James Intveld, Bobby Joyner, Rivers Rutherford, Old 97s, James Wilsey (in our band the Mysteries), Jonny Kaplan, Cisco, Jeff Roberts, Kool & the Gang, David Serby, Charlie Louvin, Bob Woodruff, Shurman, England’s Steve McNerney (founder of the power-pop band the Pleasers), Hacienda Brothers, Rosie Flores, Gary Allan, Rick Shea, Keith Gattis, the Paladins, Elisabeth Ames & the Countrypolitans, Albert Lee (once!), Zachariah & the Lobos Riders, Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, Patty Booker, Russell Scott, Rancho Deluxe, Psychedelic Cowboys, High or Hellwater, Michael Ubaldini, Angela Easterling, Grant Langston, The Reverend Horton Heat, my great pals-29 Mules, Preston Smith...
