Chris Jones, Bio

Chris Jones is a San Francisco-based songwriter who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and raised in Atlanta Georgia. With both coasts colliding in his head, he searches to bridge the traditions of southern culture with the experimentalism of West Coast into one music. He explored his country roots on "Underneath the Sun", played lead guitar in classic rock band Strangefeather, and self-produced two lo-fi psychedelic albums, "Typewriter" and "Interstellar Lounge Music", all within the last two years. It's all just music, and Chris eludes any specific genre to follow his muse.

As a live performer in 2009, Chris played 100 shows in 26 states, mostly while on a 2 month tour in a 1964 International School Bus with Strangefeather. The band followed the Dead on their Spring '09 tour, played in the parking lots using generators at most of the shows, and covered all 4 corners of America along the way. Following the breakup of the band, Chris did two more Northwest tours on his own before the year was over. He now plays regularly around San Francisco with his band (Charlie Knote - drums, Brian Michael - bass), and often collaborates with live painter Jesse Mosher on stage.

Chris cut his teeth in LA and SF as a sideman with Ride the Blinds, Jenni Alpert, Charles Gonzalez & the Stereo Glitter, The Scarecrowes (pedal steel), Stonar, Western Arms, and Dawn Thomas, while fronting his own bands Everyday Stranger, The High Life, and Peacemaker along the way. He has opened for The Mother Hips, Beachwood Sparks, Fruitbats, and ACDShe.

ALBUM RELEASES

Interstellar Lounge Music is a self-produced collection of songs that pay tribute to the "Summer of Two Thousand Great", which began with the retirement of KTVU anchorman Dennis Richmond and culminated in a west coast tour in a 1980's Toyota Chinook that would forever change the lives of those involved. The lo-fi psychedelic nature of the record conjures hazy spirits enveloped in smoke and fire and... well, just listen to it. Oh wait, you can't, because you have to come to a show and ask Chris for one of the homemade copies he created himself. Well, at least you can hear some of the songs on the MySpace page.

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 the sound and make it my own.”

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 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 (Sheryl Crow, Leon Russell, Eric McFadden, English Beat) to create a tavern-like intimacy and give each tune it's own personality. By overdubbing his own guitar, organ, pedal steel 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 will come away experiencing something fresh and vital,” says Chris.

His 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 Kelley Stoltz, Beck, Stevie Wonder, and Elliot Smith, who have utilized self-recording techniques as a vehicle for the ultimate in personal creative expression.