Telegraph Canyon

Artist Information

Biography

This is antithetical folk music, complex and lushly arranged by a menagerie of instrumentalists. Telegraph Canyon combines compelling songwriting with layers of driving, dynamic sounds only to, at times, strip it all away and expose a raw and gentle undercurrent. With seven pieces filling out the line-up Telegraph Canyon is more like a small orchestra than your average folk band.

The band is is filling 2010 with tour dates across the U.S. and Europe in support of their critically acclaimed sophomore record, "The Tide and The Current" produced by Will Johnson (Centro-Matic, South San Gabriel).

Instrumentation

Chuck Brown: Bass & Vocals

Chris Johnson: Guitar, Vocals, Banjo & Harmonica

Austin Green: Drums, Bells & Keys

Tamara Cauble: Violin & Vocals

Brian McCorquodale: Pedal Steel, Piano, Synth & Percussion

Andrew Skates: Organ, Piano, Accordion, Guitar & Mandolin

Erik Wolfe: Guitar, Vibes & Bass Drum

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Management / Booking
Lance Yocom: lance@spune.com

Euro Booking
Jaap de Waart: jaap@rocknrollhighschool.nl

Discography

The Tide and The Current LP 2009
Tour Release EP 2009
All the Good News LP 2007
Yungi- The Early Recordings EP 2005

Links

• Twitter
• Facebook
• MySpace

Audio

• Safe On The Outside
  Listen  
• Into the Woods
  Listen  
• Shake Your Fist
  Listen  
• Welcome To the Night
  Listen  
• A Light in the Field
  Listen  

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Press Clips [+ Show ]
  

  Sprawling Fort Worth, TX septet write alarming small songs, ornamented with accordion and violin — q...Sprawling Fort Worth, TX septet write alarming small songs, ornamented with accordion and violin — quiet little alt-country numbers that work their way toward irresistible choruses.
  - Rolling Stone
  
  Telegraph Canyon...an epic take on Americana that sits as comfortably with Broken Social Scene as it does with Old 97’s, both of whom it’s opened for.
  - A.V. Austin (The Onion)
  
  The Tide and The Current stands as one of the decade's without-a-doubt best.
  - Dallas Observer
  
  Telegraph Canyon's new album is a triumph of musical alchemy.
  - QUICK / Dallas Morning News
  
  Masterful. A thrilling, tightly focused tour de force that spans a range of genres.
  - Fort Worth Star-Telegram
  
  Ethereal in the way of Fleet Foxes and Band of Horses, The Current steeps its beauty in poignancy and heartbreak. "A Light In The Field" is a soaring piece of space rock with its blistering guitars and Doves-ish vocals.
  - Radio Free Silver Lake
  
  A soul-bearing, deliberately paced, at-once epic and restrained force, beautifully arranged both in its instrumentation and in its vocal harmonies. A surefire contender for best area release of 2009, the disc more than solidifies the band's rightful place among the region's best.
  - Dallas Observer
  
  Telegraph Canyon gave the headliners a run for their money, fashioning an explosive set out of material from the just-released The Tide and the Current. Frontman Chris Johnson, alternating between banjo and acoustic guitar, led the seven-piece, Fort Worth-based combo through songs stormy and stunning. Telegraph Canyon, likewise making its Bass Hall debut, displayed a confidence and bombast marking them as stars on the rise.
  - Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Bass Hall show review)
  
  Spaced out Americana RIYL My Morning Jacket, Centro-matic and Wilco. “Into the Woods” sounds like an introduction–to a record, to a band, to a sound.
  - One-Track-Mind.com
  
  The band creates an amazing authentic sound wave that makes your eardrum beat like it probably never did before. If you like bands like Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, The Low Anthem or My Morning Jacket, than Telegraph Canyon is major league for you. No question ask this band rocks!
  - Real Roots Café / Netherlands
  
  On The Tide and The Current, the band has presented the world with a record overflowing with anthemic, passionate alt-country, complete with thick layers of rock and folk that bolster the songs against the naysayers.
  - Dryvetymeonlyne.com
  
  A release that justifies everything else. The honesty of Neil Young...the open-heartedness of a voice like Joe Cocker. One genius stroke of emotionally powerful and viscerally-jarring music. The Tide and the Current is a worthy listen; don’t let this be one of the releases you miss out on.
  - Adequacy.net
  
  The Tide And The Current is an incredibly pleasant experience and highly recommended for fans of the dark folk genres. I’d advise listening on a rainy night with your favorite set of headphones as the experience is incredibly personal.
  - Rocksellout.com
  
  The Tide and the Current captures a band evolving from first track to last, stepping up and grabbing hold of what is rightfully theirs. In Telegraph Canyon’s case, that might just be the mantle of the region’s most promising act — in any genre. It’s the perfect contradiction: A band very much engrained in the local scene that, through the sheer force of its art and depth of skill, also stands apart from it.
  - Fort Worth Star-Telegram
  
  Telegraph Canyon expertly blends the rustic, organic tones of harmonica, viola, organ and acoustic guitar with the technological muscle and intricately processed electronics
  - West Coast Performer
  
  They navigate the pre-apocalyptic universe by the light of bright acoustic riffs and to the march of thunderous beats, everything guided by the spirit of frontman Chris Johnson's ominous, the end-is-near lyrics.
  - Fort Worth Weekly
  
  The space and warmth of early My Morning Jacket. This’ll be the sleeper set this weekend, the one we’ll be talking about Monday morning.
  - San Diego Reader
  
  If the Arcade Fire were a little more country and a little less Quebecois, the band would sound like fellow apocalyptic ensemble Telegraph Canyon.
  - Seattle Weekly

• Best of 2009 Year End Lists [+ Show ]
  

  "The Tide and The Current" #1 Album of The Year: Dallas Observer, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth St..."The Tide and The Current" #1 Album of The Year: Dallas Observer, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Real Roots (Netherlands)
  
  "Shake Your Fist" #1 Song of The Year - Dallas Observer
  
  "The Tide and The Current", Best Area Album Release of the 00's - Dallas Observer
  "The Tide and the Current is a grabbing listen, thrashing listeners about at times, slowly coasting them along at others. Credit Centro-matic's Will Johnson and his production for pulling this record out of the Fort Worth seven-piece, but only so much: It's head songwriter Chris Johnson who truly shines here, his affecting Texas/Louisiana drawl serving as the compelling centerpiece amidst an album filled with opulent instrumentation and impeccable beyond-local-comparison arrangement."
  
  Top 10 Best Concerts - #3 Telegraph Canyon / Old 97's Ball Performance Hall
  - Dallas Observer
  "In the cavernous 2,000-capacity room, which normally plays home to operas and symphonies, Telegraph Canyon enraptured the slow-arriving audience with its carefully arranged, delicately preformed baroque rock; Chris Johnson's voice trembled throughout the 11-year-old performance hall and the band's music slowly built to crescendos that crept up to the rafters and wormed their way into the compelled crowd's guts. It was an impressive debut for the band in a room such as this--something culled as much from the jaw-dropping performance as from the crowd's enthusiastic applause at the end of each song."
  
  #2 Album of The Year - Pegasus News and 102.1 The Edge
  
  #10 Top Texas Album of The Year -KERA (NPR)
  "pigeonhole-defying band that fuses brooding urgency with an ethereal intimacy
  reminiscent of the Flaming Lips."
  
  Top 10 Album of The Year - Fort Worth Star-Telegram
  
  DFW.com (FW Star-Telegram) Top Stories of 2009 - "The Rise of Telegraph Canyon"
  
  #6 Album of The Year - Radio Free Silver Lake
  
  "Old Dark Hymns" and "Shake Your Fist" local songs of the decade - Fort Worth Weekly
  
  Top music enjoyed in 2009 - D Magazine's Zac Crain
  "It would be a tragedy to misjudge their brilliance based upon anything you think you know for in that moment lies the balance between what is and is not dead. Check them out the next time they come to smash your village." - Branton Ellerbee / Zac Crain
  

Setlist

Safe on the Outside
All the Good News
Into the Woods
Come the Morning
A Light in the Field
Quiet Assurance
Welcome to the Night
Shake Your Fist
Reels & Wires
You & Jane
Old Dark Hymns
Golden
Low
Spinning Wheels
The Streets
Oh Sister
Dressed in FIGHT
Captain

The band typically plays 40-60 minute sets.

Basic Requirements

Calendar