Biography
Singer-songwriter Chris Vallillo entertains audiences wherever he plays with music that portrays the joys and sorrows, ups and downs of Midwestern life.
In a variety of roots-based styles, Chris performs on six string and bottleneck slide guitars, harmonica and pocket instruments. His shows incorporate original and traditional material with the works of other contemporary songwriters to form a musical portrait of the history and lifestyle of the Midwest.
Vallillo's Prairie poet style has been compared to Edgar Lee Masters and Vachel Lindsay. Reviewers have also described him as an exceptional guitarist who speaks from the heart of rural Illinois. Dirty Linen magazine had this to say: "He brings to his music (an) eye for detail and a sense of history... Vivid original story songs delivered in his crisp, expressive tenor."
A graduate of Beloit College with a BA in Anthropology, Chris spend his first few years out of school as a professional archaeologist working throughout the Midwest. After settling in western Illinois, he began seriously pursuing music, writing and performing with a variety of bands before beginning his career as a soloist.
For Chris, a good song is as much a work of art as any painting or sculpture. His music has a timeless quality about it, with one foot in the past and one foot in the future. He combines traditional and modern styles of finger picking, bottleneck slide and flat picking to paint pictures using words, tone and rhythm - pictures of a community coming together to help a family in need, a childhood baseball game, or a storm rising on the prairie.
A recipient of a 1986 Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award for music composition, Chris was also a nominee for the Illinois Arts Council's 1987 Governor's Award for Individual Artist. From 1990 through 1998 he served as the performing host and co-producer of the nationally distributed, award-winning public radio performance series Rural Route 3.
Chris Vallillo is a member of the Illinois Arts Council's Artstour Roster, the Illinois Arts Council’s Artists in Education program, the Illinois Humanities Council's Road Scholars program, and the Heartland Fund's Community Connections program. Each of these prestigious programs provides funding assistance for the presentation of talented professional artists to audiences throughout the Midwest.
AWARDS
2001: Administrative Fellowship, Illinois Arts Council to conduct the Illinois Mississippi River Valley Project.
1998: National Federation of Community Broadcaster's Special Merit Award for National Music/Entertainment Series for the Rural Route 3 Radio Show.
1995: National Federation of Community Broadcaster's Bronze Reel Award for National Music/Entertainment Series for the Rural Route 3 Radio Show.
1987: Nominated for the Illinois Arts Council's Governor's Award for Individual Artist.
1986: Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship Award for Music Composition.
1985: Finalist at the Kerrville Folk Festival Songwriting Competition, Kerrville, Texas.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
2006-2008: Illinois State Scholar for the Smithsonian Institution's touring exhibition "New Harmonies" on Roots Music in America.
2006: Co Host of WTTW Chicago Public TV's "Arts Across Illinois Live!" television program.
2006: Artistic Director of the "Hickory Ridge Roots Music Festival".
2003: Artistic producer and performer for the Illinois Mississippi River Valley Project Festival, a weekend of workshops and performances August 15th and 16th, in Galena, IL.
2003: Co-producing the Folk Songs of Illinois CD for the Illinois Humanities Council's Heritage Music Project CD series.
2001-2002: Carried out the field work for the Illinois Arts Council's Illinois Mississippi River Valley Project, designed to document the artists along the Mississippi River.
October 2000: Performer and Producer of the On the Farm Harvest Festival for the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL.
1990-1997: Host and co-producer of the award winning nationally syndicated public radio series Rural Route 3.
1993-1994: The Civil War and Reconstruction. 22 part public television series. Composed, performed and recorded the theme song, arranged, performed and recorded period music on vintage instruments for the sound track.
1993: Echoes Of A Country Schoolhouse. Commissioned by the Gardener Museum of Architecture, Quincy, IL to co-write and perform in a 2 person interactive play on the one room schoolhouse experience.
1992-1993: Illinois Historic Panorama. Composed, performed, and recorded the soundtrack for the 13 part public television series on the history of Illinois from the glaciers to the present.
1987: The Schuyler Arts Folk Music Collecting Project. Designed and carried out a music collecting project for the Illinois Arts Council and the Schuyler Arts Council in co-operation with the Library of Congress Folklife Center. The collection was accepted into the Library of Congress Folklife Archives in 1988.
Instrumentation
In a variety of roots-based styles, Chris performs on six string and bottleneck slide guitars, harmonica and pocket instruments. His shows incorporate original and traditional material with the works of other contemporary songwriters to form a musical portrait of the history and lifestyle of the Midwest.
Chris Vallillo's songwriting has often been compared to the poems of Edgar Lee Masters, whose famous "Spoon River Anthology" depicted the complex struggles of Midwestern life in simple verse. A singer-songwriter and instrumentalist with an affinity for American roots music, Vallillo is a skilled six-string and bottleneck slide guitarist who incorporates original and traditional material to
form a musical portrait of the Midwestern way of life.
Discography
Hear sounds clips for all of Chris's in print recordings at his web site www.chrisvallillo.com.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN SONG-----------------2007-------
The life of Abraham Lincoln spanned a period of change, growth and struggle in our young nation, and the music of his era movingly characterizes these remarkable times. Award-winning folksinger Chris Vallillo uses contemporary folk music, and period folk songs to shed light on one of history’s most beloved figures — not only as a remarkable leader, but as a man — who knew and loved many of these very songs himself.
"With Abraham Lincoln in Song, Chris Vallillo takes the audience on a musical journey, making history come alive with his excellent blending of music and storytelling. He grabbed hold of the museum visitors here, establishing excellent rapport with the audience with this thoughtful, humorous and moving show."
Phil Funkenbusch
Director of Theaters, Shows Division
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
and Museum Springfield, Illinois
Battle Cry Of Freedom
Shawneetown
El-A-Noy
Lorena
Lincoln's Funeral Train
We Are Coming Father Abra'am
Hard Times Come Again No More
Dixie's Land
Auara Lee
Hoosen Johnny
Darlin Nelly Gray
Lincoln and Liberty
Let the Band Play Dixie
THE DANCE --------------------------------------------------
Newly released in May 2005, “The Dance” features Chris Vallillo on acoustic guitars, bottleneck slide and vocals and includes seven original songs and instrumentals along with four contemporary folk songs and an old Stephen Foster tune just to keep things interesting:
The Dance
Hopelessly Midwestern
Let Them In Peter
Diamonds Falling From The Sky
Sunday Drivin' On A Monday Afternoon
Small Victory
I'm Movin' On
Homemade Ice Cream
Early
Some Sweet Day
Emily's Waltz
Hard Times Come Again No More
AURAL TRADITIONS-----------------------------------------
"Now that's real music!"
- Old Man, Hannibal Folklife Festival, Hannibal MO
The late 1800's and the early 1900's were a time of growth and prosperity for the Midwest. With the introduction of radio, musical styles merged and grew replacing the old with astounding speed. AURAL TRADITIONS captures that time presenting a slice of the musical pie that entertained, enlivened and strengthened the people of the rural Midwest between the 1860's and the 1930's.
The songs range from well known numbers like the Carter Family's classics Life's Railway to Heaven and Keep On The Sunnyside Of Life, Jimmy Rogers's Traveling Blues, Albert E. Brumely's I'll Fly Away to obscure gems such as When Katie Comes Down By The Gate (learned from Lawrence Royer, a 96 year old man from rural Bader, IL whose mother had been taught the song in the local one room schoolhouse in 1884).
Steeped in the roots styles of music that were such a big part of the heritage of the region, Vallillo performed on a variety of vintage instruments, a 1936 "Angelus" wood bodied dobro, a 1940's Gibson Southern Jumbo guitar, a mid 30's Kalamazoo Mandolin, and a 1880's era hammer dulcimer bringing this music to life with an authentic accuracy.
THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS-------------------
"This is a Classic of the Genre."
- Kerrville Kronikles
"Vivid, original story songs... delivered in his crisp, expressive tenor... accompanied on this fine recording by some of Nashville's best."
- Dirty Linen
Anyone who has ever listened to late night radio (or sat behind the board at 3:00 am wondering if anyone was listening) will relate to the title track, Best Of All Possible Worlds, a tribute to an old late night radio show of the same name. Then there's the Walnut Fiddle, the story of Homer Bedenbender and his aged home made instrument. The lazy slide guitar and harmonica of Hot Day paint a flawless picture of a steamy August afternoon in the Mississippi Valley while Driving Into The Storm captures that flash point of anger and frustration where driving face first into the lightning seems like the only sane choice. And to shift gears, there's the bottleneck slide version of Amazing Grace - played on a turn of the century $2.00 Sears and Roebuck guitar which takes that classic gospel song in a whole new direction.
Co-produced with Grammy nominee Rich Adler at Suite 2000 in Nashville, The Best Of All Possible Worlds features some of the best acoustic players in the business: Folks like the late Roy Huskey Jr. on bass, Kenny Malone on drums, Andrea Zohn on fiddle, Deanie Richardson on mandolin, David Schnaufer on dulcimer, Ron Ickes on dobro and Jim Hoke on harmonica.
THE WESTERN ILLINOIS RAG------------------------------
(Cassette only release, currently out of print, soon to be re-released on CD.)
"It is a beautiful recording and will be enjoyed by all those, like me, that enjoy evocations of rural America so well done."
- Peter O'Brian
Omaha Rainbow, Surrey, England
Ten original songs comprising a portrait of rural America in words and music. Recorded at the University of Illinois Historic Experimental Music Studio, this fine recording features the fiddle playing of the then teenaged Olympian fiddler Alison Krauss.
Album Songs:
The Western Illinois Rag
Autumn
Silhouette Against the Stars
Goodbye Christine
When You Were Mickey Mantle
Runnin the River
Goodbye Independent Trucker
Treasurers Of The Heart
Rollin Rock Reel
Rollin Down The Highway Alone
Links
| http://www.chrisvallillo.com |