Chris Jones is a San Francisco-based retro-revival songwriter who grew up in the South. The influences of both coasts colliding in his brain have led him on a journey to bridge tradition and innovation. With one foot in the classic songwriting styles of Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, and Townes Van Zandt, Chris takes his cue from modern artists like Ryan Adams, Jeff Tweedy and Elliot Smith, by effortlessly writing across genres like classic country, catchy pop, bloody rock n’ roll and elegant folk without boundaries. It’s all just music, and Chris's diverse and immense repertoire covers all bases.
After spending the last year touring as lead guitarist for the rock band Strangefeather, Chris has ignited his solo career with the rock/country debut album, "Underneath the Sun". Interestingly, his forthcoming record "Interstellar Lounge Music" reveals a more sophisticated psychedelic folk side, hinting at the broad range of music palettes Chris is capable of satisfying.
Chris cut his teeth in LA and San Francisco as a sideman with Ride the Blinds, Jenni Alpert, Charles Gonzalez and the Stereo Glitter, Stonar, Pink Sabbath, and Dawn Thomas. Experimentalism without boundaries. It's all just music to him.
For his first commercial release with a label Chris had definite ideas about how he wanted "Underneath the Sun" to sound. “I reached back into the rhythms and lyrics of my Southern beginnings and mixed them with the experiences I’ve had being a performer in the San Francisco music scene,†says Chris. “I wanted to write songs with classic honky-tonk themes and bring the energy of Southern Rock to innovate on the sound and make it my own.â€
For the full-on rock songs, he chose to lay down live performances with a minimal amount of dubbing and mixing. These sessions were performed at San Francisco’s Different Fur studios along with seasoned bandmates Bill Cramer and Chris Guthridge from Ride the Blinds. The more country-rock sounding songs on Underneath the Sun were done in the remote, wind-and-fog-swept seaside town of Caspar, Calif., just north of Mendocino. Here, at Old School Studios, he collaborated with Calvin Turnbull -- who has worked with Sheryl Crow, Leon Russell and Eric McFadden among others -- to create a tavern-like intimacy and give each tune a striking personality. By overdubbing tracks with his own guitar, organ, steel guitar and harmonica playing, Chris uniquely delivers personal songs that will strike a chord with just about any listener.
“My hope is that people will hear and feel something familiar about the songs on Underneath the Sun but they will experience something fresh and moving,†says Chris.
Chris's previous album, "Typewriter", was self-written, performed and mixed with a simple 4-track setup (Boss BR-532 recorder with an SM57 mic) in his dilapidated Victorian apartment on 24th St. and Mission, SF. You can purchase it on iTunes, or check his website. It's a tip of the hat to artists like Kelley Stoltz, Beck, Stevie Wonder, and Elliot Smith, who have self-recorded with a 4-track as a vehicle for the ultimate in personal creative expression.