Headed North
Current mood: Roadworthy

It's been almost 3 years since I played in Vermont (and even longer since I played in Massachusetts), so next week I am playing a few gigs here in North Carolina and then I'm headed North.

On Sunday, July 20th I'll stop in D.C. and return to The Wonderland Ballroom.  I play at 8:00 and then will hang around a bit before I get back in the car and start the trek up to Vermont.

After spending a few days with friends and family I'm headed up near Boston to play a few gigs.  On Wednesday, July 23rd I'll be the featured performer at Emack and Bolio in Roslindale, MA.  The open-mic starts around 7:00 and I'll play for about an hour starting at 8:00 pm. 

On Thursday I'll be the featured performer at the Rose Room Revue at The Rose Garden in Upton, MA.  Music will get started around 8:00 and I'll probably be playing around 9:00 pm.

On Saturday, July 26th I'll be playing an early show at Nectar's in Burlington.  The gig starts at 7:00 and I'll play for a couple hours. 

Finally, on Sunday, July 27th I'll be in Morrisville, VT at The Bees Knees.  That show starts at 7:30 pm.

So, if you are near any of these venues I hope to see you there, and if you know anyone in any of these places, spread the word.

For specific details and venue addresses, check the gigs listed on my myspace page, or go to reverbnation.com or www.christitchner.com

With gas prices the way the are, it might be another 3 years before I make it back up to New England again...

See you soon,
Chris.

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Some Things Never Change now on i-tunes

This is just to let you know that my CD, Some Things Never Change, is now available on i-tunes.
This album is from my days with cellist Ana Jesse when we performed under the name, Sunday Rain Dog.
It's much more acoustic than Moving Day, and should be filed under Cello-Folk.
If you're curious you can head over to i-tunes to check it out, or visit the myspace page at www.myspace.com/sundayraindog and then go to i-tunes.
Either way you should go buy it.
Chris.

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Now that you mention it that picture on the milk carton does bear a striking resemblance
Current mood: cheerful

So, yeah...I know...it's been a long time...Sorry
But I do have a valid excuse for not writing for months.
See, it starts out with a simple break.  I went to Spain in July and when I returned I was feeling pretty blah about returning to my routine.  I played a few gigs, but just wasn't feeling it.  I decided that I needed to take a break.

So I did, for most of August and all of September and October.   I admit that the break was good, but I had every intention of picking up my guitar and getting back out and playing in November and December, but a funny thing happened:  I got a teaching job. 

Now, as most of you know, I recently went back to school to get certified to teach high school English, and although the job market down here was supposed to be ripe for teachers, the fine print that was too small for me to read actually said, "this offer applies only to teachers of Math and Science, offer void for English and Social Studies teacher."  Anyway, my job search had come to naught and I was subbing for September, October, and most of November.  Then, my luck changed and I got an offer at a great school and started the Monday after Thanksgiving.  Needless to say, the life of a first year teacher-especially one who has less than a weeks notice to take over classes in mid-semester- is a hectic one.  My short hiatus became a bit longer.

Now it's February and I've been playing a few gigs here and there around North Carolina.  I have a few gigs booked in Virginia over the next few months and I'm eyeing a Vermont trip in July. 

I've got part of an album mapped out and I'm starting to look towards the studio again.  Check back in the coming weeks for a few possible demo sightings.

In closing, I hope you now realize why I have been so absent, and you forgive me.  I hope that you begin to check in every now and again and I promise to make it worth your while by posting.

I've missed you guys,
Chris.

P.S. Mike, if you're reading this, Happy Birthday.

5:32 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

The Story Behind The Song: An Introduction

Back when I was in music school one of the CDs that was very popular with many of my friends was Sarah Mclaughlin's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy.  This was before the whole Lilith Fair phenomenon when she became the poster girl for everything that followed and fell out of favor.  All I knew at the time was that she had an amazing voice, her songs were really original, and she used real drums that were arranged to sound like drum loops.  It was truly something new at the time.  Plus, it was a good album to put on as background music when you were hanging out with your girlfriend, so that obviously put it over the top.

My favorite song on the album was the first track, Possession.  This song had a great chorus with lines like "I will be the one to hold you down / Kiss you so hard / I'll take your breath away..."  Plus, the album closed with a solo piano version as the bonus track and being the acoustic music fan that I am, I loved the two diverse versions of the song that bookended the record.

It was not until much later that I learned that the song was not at all what I thought it was.  Much like Every Breath You Take, Possession was not a love song or a seduction song, but a song written from the point of view of a stalker.  Needless to say, the song has never been the same for me, and in some ways I wish I had never learned the truth; I was much happier with my own interpretation of the song.

Every now and again in an e-mail or at a show I get questions about the origins of my own songs.  I have always been happy to explain things and share when asked.  During the songwriting workshops I have done in the past I often discuss where songs come from and use some of my songs as examples.  Furthermore, I always enjoyed watching Storytellers on VH1 to hear some of my favorite musicians discuss their own songs. 

This brings me to the point of this post:  I have decided that every now and again I am going to write about where a specific song came from; the story behind the song.  Often my songs have a story behind them or something in their creation that you all might find interesting, at least enough to read about it in a blog when you should be doing something more constructive.

I'm not sure how often I will do this, or what songs I will choose.  I've been considering this idea for a while now, and it seemed like the right time.

So, if anyone wants to know about a specific song they can shoot me an e-mail or a comment and I will do my best to answer their query.

I don't feel I have anything in the background of any of my songs that will alter them as drastically as the example I wrote about above, but read each of these entries knowing that true context can alter interpretation for better or for worse.

I also encourage anyone to post a response to any song with their own thoughts and interpretations.  I have often met people who have better stories and interpretations about my songs than I do.  It's always nice to know when people have personalized and internalized a work to make it their own.  I love to hear what people have to say.

7:38 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

...now the Leafs call me up to drive the Zamboni (Spain part 1)
Current mood: happy

Well, for those of you who have been wondering why I've been absent from posting lately, I'm pleased to say it was not because of my usual slacker ways...:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

I recently enjoyed a 10 day trip to ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Spain.  Rather than write a long drawn out travel log, and trust me, if you ask anyone to whom I have already regaled my amazing trip, you are thankful to be spared. 
We took several hundred pictures and I find myself channeling Patty and Selma with my urge to force a slideshow on anyone and everyone.  Although I must point out that most of our pictures are not of us, and besides, Leslie and I are much cuter and more fun to look at.

No, instead I will give you a brief list of some of things that I learned and appreciated on my trip.

1) Spain is the perfect place for a musician/night owl.  Spaniards don't feel the need to get up too early; they take a siesta in the afternoon; dinner is served around 9:00 pm and most people stay out until close to midnight

2) Traveling to another country is something that everyone should do at least once.  Okay, so this is something you've heard before and probably seems fairly obvious to most, but this was my first time leaving North America, and I feel truly changed by the experience.  I saw more and learned more than I thought possible in the 10 days I was gone.  Immersing oneself in a foreign culture is something that everyone should do at least once in their life.

3) The reason Americans are fat is because our portions are huge.  In Spain they serve soda and beer in tall narrow glasses, bottles and cans to make you feel like you have a large amount, but in fact you are drinking much less.  This optical illusion works, I was just as happy with my 300 ml can of Fanta as I have been with my 12 ounce can (355 ml) or 22 oz bottle (651 ml) here in the states.  I walked by a McDonalds, don't get me started, and noticed that the large in Spain is like our medium here.  This is not only true with drinks, the food portions are also much smaller.  Think quality over quantity.  

4) Corn Syrup ruins Soda.  This is something I already knew from all my time spent in Canada, but soda made with sugar is so much better than the stuff they sell here in the States.  Corn Syrup is junk.

5) Gaudi is The Man.  After visiting The Sagrada Familia, Casa Battlo, Parc Guell, and Casa Mila it has become clear that while some manage to think outside the box, others glance at the box for a moment and then calmly redefine and transform the box into something beyond regular human imagination and vision.  Gaudi's ability to translate and reinterpret nature into his architecture and design is mind blowing and extremely inspiring.

6) The Spanish know Pork, Wine, Olives, and Chocolate... and many more things too, but these are the things that came quickly to mind.

7) If you treat a place with respect you get treated with respect in return.   Once again, I'm not reinventing the wheel, this is a variation on one of the Golden Rules, but I was a bit worried about how I would be treated in Europe as an American, but I have to say that everyone was lovely; friendly and helpful.  I tried very hard to not be a typical American and I think that helped, but I felt more than welcome during my entire stay.

8) Our country is a newborn baby when compared to many other places.   It was humbling and exciting to visit places that had been around for hundreds and hundreds of years.  For example, The Alhambra, one of the highlights of my trip, dates back to around 1338, almost 150 years before Columbus even laid his eyes on North America.  Speaking of Columbus, I saw his tomb in Sevilla, that was interesting as well.

9)  We should spend more time planning development and expansion in this country.  I did not see any giant housing developments or McMansions in Spain.  They embraced their history and seemed to be very thoughtful in their development. 

10) The way to make people drive smaller cars and drive less in general is to make gas ridiculously expensive.  There are no Hummers in Spain; gas is sold by the liter; Public Transportation is top notch.

That's all for now, I'm sure I'll think of more things I want to write about later. 

P.S. Five Genius Points for anyone who can name the reference I used in my Subject Header

8:00 AM - 4 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

My Brain Must Be Getting Full

It all started a few weeks ago at Driade.  Dunbar, the excellent bass player, and his wife came out to a gig for the first time in forever and they were treated to the worst opening set I've played in quite some time.  I dropped chords, I forgot lyrics, and to top it off, during my final song of the set, Bad Dog, the g-string broke causing the guitar to go violently out of tune and leaving all the chords without the all-important third.  For those of you who aren't as familiar with chord structure, the third provides the major or minor tonality of the chord and without it the song is often sunk; I was sunk.  I had been worried about the new songs I was going to play, but it was the old songs that tripped me up.

Thankfully, I rebounded nicely for the second set and the new songs I played that night went quite well.  Afterwards, I tried to figure out what had happened.  Most gigs are getting to be old hat with me and it's rare that things come apart like that.  Finally, I realized what it was:  My brain is just too full.
The whole time I was up on stage part of my brain was thinking about the lyrics and structure of the new songs that are still finding their way under my fingers and over my tongue.  I wasn't able to stay engaged with the performance and when I got distracted the older songs wandered off without me. 

It happened again this weekend.  I was in D.C. to play a 45 minute set at the Wonderland Ballroom.  Several tables of friends were there and I had decided to play a couple of new song including one that I hadn't played for a crowd before.  As I was getting ready to start, I asked if there were any requests and "Let Me Play The Fool" was suggested.  I don't play this song very often, but it's sort of a standard and since there were a few folks from the Three Mile Limit days, I threw it on the set list.
Bad idea.  I flipped the second part of the first verse with the first part of the second, something I used to do from time to time years ago, and wound up going in circles.  There's nothing like asking for requests and then messing them up to feel like a moron.  Once again, my brain was full of new lyrics and changes and the older ones and been buried where I couldn't find them when I needed them. 

In spite of this, the D.C. gig was so much fun and it was really great to see so many people I hadn't seen in a while.  If any of you are reading this, thanks so much for coming out to the gig.  Hopefully I will be back in D.C. soon.  Hey, and if you let me know your requests now, I can knock the rust off them before I get in front of the mic or not plan to introduce anything new that might trip me up.

10:41 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Here's To Another Year
Current mood: cheerful

I realized today that yesterday was the two year anniversary of this blog.  As some of you may know, June 7th is my birthday and I had decided to start this blog as I was getting ready to celebrate in 2005.  I thought I should write a short post to commemorate it.  It's hard to believe that it's been two years. 

This also means that Moving Day has been out for just over two years as well.  I have begun to get questions about a follow-up, and I think most people are asking because they just want to hear new songs when they come out to my gigs.  For those who have been wondering, I'm happy to announce that I've been doing a bit more writing these days.  Things have slowed down and I've gone back and finished several things that I've been working on these last few months.

Actually, I debuted a couple new songs last week at Driade, and finished another new song just yesterday, so those of you who find your way out to a gig in the next few months are sure to hear some new and unfamiliar songs.  It's nice to finally move on from Moving Day and to finally start looking towards the next one.  Truthfully, the next CD is probably not going to be made for a while, I'm still working my way out of debt from the last one, but I'm starting to see how it might begin to take shape, and I feel pretty good about that.  There's a lot going on these days, and I hope to take the time to sit down and write about.

It's been another good year...

10:01 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Pomp and Circumstance
Current mood: Degreed

It has been a real whirlwind for me the last few months, actually it's been pretty whirlwindy the last year, but the long of the short of it is that I graduated this past Saturday from NC State with a degree in English/Secondary Education.  My family came into town and managed to graduate with honors, Summa Cum Laude if I may brag for a moment, so it was a very memorable weekend and a lot more fun than I even thought it would be.

Now the job hunt has begun and things look to be busy for some time, but be sure to keep your eyes open for any upcoming gigs.  I'll be playing around North Carolina this summer, as well as going up to D.C., Virginia, and Maryland.  I'm also considering a short New England trip as well, so be sure to check in with the blog and the website to see if I'll be coming to where you live.

Finally, if you have any venue ideas or better yet want to offer up your own place for a house concert, please let me know.  You can contact me here at Myspace, or e-mail me through my website.

Chris.

7:09 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Three Weekends of Gigs That I Meant To Write About

Okay, I've been meaning to write about a few gigs lately, but I never seem to have the time.  So, I decided to write about them in one single blog and that way if you have no interest in hearing me reminisce about such things, you can just skip it.  The good news is that each write-up has been condenced for easier digestion.

The fist gig was back in the beginning of March and it was my first show in Raleigh in quite some time.  Now, for me, hometown shows are a real mixed bag.  First of all, since you are a local musician people who don't know you figure that you're probably not that good.  Secondly, more often than not your friends and fan base figure they can just catch you next time and don't come out either.  The end result is that hometown gigs can be sparsely attended, sometimes worse than towns you play for the first time. 

However, the gig at Bushiban was not like this.  I'd had a few people mention that they hoped to be there, but I didn't have my hopes too high about it.  Frankly, and I'm just as guilty about this as anyone, the number of people who actually show up to a gig after they tell me they're going to try and make it is roughly 22%.  On this night I had expected only a few, but many more showed up.  Bushiban is a small venue but we pretty much packed the place.  Thanks to everyone who came, I really appreciate it.  Sorry it took so long for me to sing your praises.

The next gigs I wanted to mention in the blog were out of state.  A couple of weeks ago I went up to D.C. and played a couple shows in Maryland.  Considering it was Spring Break for UMD, the College Perk show was still pretty good.  There were a few friendly faces and the new folks were pretty nice too.  I want to send along a special thanks to Masha and Jason for coming out to the gig and then letting me crash on the couch.  I had been prepared to sleep in my car, but this was so much nicer.  On Saturday, we went to Denny's and Jason brought his cat along…Don't ask. 

Saturday I was back in Westminster and played the best gig performance-wise that I've played in a while.  This just reinforces the truth that I need to get out playing more.  I should really book a multi-week tour.  On that note, if anyone has any suggestions for cities or venues, pass them along.  I'm thinking I might head west.    

Finally, last weekend I played at The Wolf's Lair.  It was great to back, the staff there rocks, and I had one of the best meals I've had in a really long time.  On the drive I realized that I've been playing there for 5 years this month; one of the longest active stretches I have at any venue.  The sad truth of this realization is not that places don't invite me back, I actually have a very high return rate for the venues I play, but many folk music venues don't make it 5 years.  We play in independent coffee shops and bookstores and many of these places can't afford to continue to bring in live music or just close down altogether. 

For the record, before anyone points out the fact that I play at venues and then they close down remember what we learned in science class: "correlation does not imply causation"

At least I hope that's the case since I'm playing in Roanoke this Friday at The

3^rd Street Coffeehouse and they're about to celebrate their 20^th anniversary…I'll keep you posted.

Oh, and hopefully I didn't offend anyone with my recent "Make Your Good Friday Great" campaign for this upcoming Roanoke gig.  I take full responsibility, but in my defense I was raised on The Simpsons and The Onion so a little blasphemy in the spirit of humor should be expected at this point.

Chris.

5:27 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Music as Time Machine
Current mood: pensive

Well, I have been thinking a great deal about good songwriting lately and going back through my many CDs and examining the work of good songwriters. 

Recently, I was walking back from class and listening to Can You Fly by Freedy Johnston.  For those of you haven't heard of him, Freedy Johnston put out several excellent albums in the late 90s, the most famous being an album called This Perfect World.  Now, This Perfect World, is a masterpiece, and got quite a bit of press.  It's a great album that holds together from start to finish. 

Can You Fly is the album that came out before that TPW, and although it's not quite as solid all the way through, it's still a pretty good album. 

I bought Can You Fly up in College Town which is the name of a small section of Ithaca, NY, that bumps up against Cornell campus.  I was enrolled in music school at Ithaca at the time.  For those of you who are not familiar with Ithaca, Ithaca College and Cornell University are both located there.  They are each located up on hills, and the main downtown can be found between them.  I didn't have a car at school, so if I wanted to go downtown, I could go bum a ride, walk, or take a bus.  This particular trip I had elected to take a bus downtown, and after wandering around 'The Commons', a pedestrian mall that was designed by the same guy who designed Church St. in Burlington, I decided that I wanted to go up to College Town. 

There was a record store on The Commons, but it wasn't all that great, and I had found that the one up on The Cornell hill was better.  So I took a second bus and went up to College Town to walk around.  When I found Can You Fly, I was ecstatic.  I had no idea that it even existed, it was released on Bar/None, and since this was really before the Internet, I didn't know that Freedy had any CDs out prior to TPW.  I put it in my CD player and walked around Cornell and College Town for the rest of the afternoon.  It was one of those cool fall northern days and the air was crisp, but the sun was warm.  It can be nice to walk and watch and listen, especially when you don't have any place you need to be or want to go. 

Nothing truly memorable happened that day, and it didn't really stand out in my memory, but as I walked back from class the other day with that same CD playing in my ears, I found myself back to that time.  It was a time where I wasn't particularly happy, but looking back I found myself quite nostalgic for the me back then. 

Just listening to that album brought me back in time like I had entered a Time Machine; old memories and strong emotions bubbling up from a time that has long since past.  I didn't really want to go back there, but in a strange way I missed it terribly. 

Music is an amazing thing.     

4:33 PM - 3 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment