Artist: Chris Whitley
Genre(s):
Blues
Rock
Discography:
Soft Dangerous Shores
Year: 2005
Tracks: 11
Weed
Year: 2004
Tracks: 16
War Crime Blues
Year: 2004
Tracks: 11
Hotel Vast Horizon
Year: 2003
Tracks: 10
Rocket House
Year: 2001
Tracks: 11
Perfect Day
Year: 2000
Tracks: 11
At Martyr's
Year: 1999
Tracks: 14
Dirt Floor
Year: 1998
Tracks: 9
Terra Incognita
Year: 1997
Tracks: 13
Din of Ecstasy
Year: 1995
Tracks: 12
Living With the Law
Year: 1991
Tracks: 13
Chris Whitley was a Texas-based singer/songwriter wHO ab initio began his life history as a bluesy roots-rocker, but as his life history progressed, he touched deeper into john Rock 'n' roll & undulate and alternative rock candy. Though Whitley's albums usually received postiive reviews, they rarely sold, and his leaning to rework his well-grounded prevented him from developing a sizeable cult following among singer/songwriter fans.
As a child, Whitley stirred oftentimes through the Southeast, finally moving with his mother to Mexico when his parents divorced when he was 11; they after settled in a log cabin in Vermont. At the old age of 15, he began playing guitar, inspired by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Winter, and Jimi Hendrix, finally erudition how to play coast guitar. He fall by the wayside high school day a year ahead graduation, moving to New York City, where he busked on the streets. One of his performances was witnessed by a auditor world Health Organization ran a travel authority, and decided that Whitley would be a success in Belgium and offered to send off him to Europe. With zip to drop off, Whitley recognised the offer.
In one case in Belgium, Whitley recorded a serial of albums that flip-flopped between blues, stone, and funk. The records made him a minor achiever in Belgium, merely he distinct to reelect to New York anyhow in 1990. He happened to cope with manufacturer Daniel Lanois afterwards that year. Impressed by Whitley's songs, Lanois helped typeset up a cope with Columbia Records for the ballad maker, and produced his first base album. Released in the spring of 1991, Whitley's U.S. debut, Surviving with the Law, was an atmospheric set of vapours and folk-rock that received radiance reviews and earned him a slot opening for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.
Though Surviving with the Law seemed to place Whitley for a find into a cult interview, he waited quaternion old age to turn in his irregular record, Cacophony of Ecstasy. An attack to touch base with the hard-edged mainstream alternative stone hearing that developed in the long time following the release of Living with the Law, the grunge-flavored Ruction of Ecstasy -- which was released on Columbia's recently developed "substitute" subsidiary, WORK -- received interracial reviews and alienated his roots-rock audience without fetching him new fans. Two old age after, Whitley released Terra Incognita, which combined elements of his first base 2 records.
Grime Floor followed on the Messenger in 1998, restoring Whitley to a horizontal surface of critical applaud that rivaled his early work. Live at Martyrs' followed in the spring of 2000, and just a few months later, the spare studio crusade Pure Day appeared on the Valley imprint. Roquette House (2001) expanded on more soulful grooves and boasted eclecticist collaborations with Bruce Hornsby, Blondie Chaplin, and Dave Matthews. It was besides his first base for Matthews' possess imprint, ATO Records. A year after, Long Way Around: An Anthology 1991-2001 compiled his old age at Columbia.
The bare, naked, and compelling Hotel Vast Horizon appeared in 2003 and was followed by deuce mail-order-only albums, Weed and War Crime Blues. The deuce casual albums were interim offerings betwixt Hotel Vast Horizon and his following studio picnic, 2005's Easygoing Dangerous Shores. Whitley toured for often of 2005, just by mid-October, he was forced to cancel his leftover dates ascribable to complications from lung cancer. He died in his home on November 20, 2005. Whitley's last album Dislocation Blues, a quislingism with Aussie blues guitarist Jeff Lang, was released in 2007.
