Chip Raman
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Chip Raman

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | INDIE

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States | INDIE
Established on Jan, 2014
Solo Folk Singer/Songwriter

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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"Unlike Anything Being Produced Today"

If you’re looking for a diversion from songs on the radio and Billboard’s top 100, you might find this unique album quite intriguing. Chip Raman's voice is a combination of many sounds, though mainly in a renewed Bob Dylan style. Raman’s album Edge of a Song gives album artwork a whole new meaning. Not only is his album a work of art but he also features his own paintings in the accompanying liner notes. He also produced the album himself and maintained leadership as the main creative director.
Take a few minutes to listen to the first song, Edge of the Wind. Raman starts out alone but by the end of the song has a full folk chorus backing him up. You can’t help but smile as each voice and layer adds to the song. The album was a collaborative effort by him and 15 of his friends, which he credits profusely in the album booklet.
Raman's sound is interesting and unlike anything else being produced these days. His voice is rough and unpolished but the overall effect makes his songs even more powerful. Lonesome Painter is about him being a lonely musician, painter, and... just an overall lonely person. Though it is apparent however that he is not all that lonely with such a large following of friends and fans. It’s obvious he is a talented songwriter and painter and is definitely worth taking a listen to. You’ll enjoy the works of a man out to change the world... one song at a time.
- Deryn Harbin, music-reviewer.com


"A Straightforward Chap with a Guitar with an Attachment to Today's Listener"

Chip Raman – Edge of a Song / 2007 Rosebud / http://www.chipraman.com /

It has been quite a while since a straight-forward chap with a guitar sounded this way. Individuals will hear a lot of the sixties (Neil Young, Bob Dylan) in Raman’s style. Obviously, Young or Dylan never said anything about opening up their Nokia, but the style of Raman is unmistakenly influenced by these two giants of rock. “The Post It Note” discusses a phone conversation between Raman and god, and this track only becomes more impressive when Raman modifies his vocals to achieve a higher register.

Where a number of the recordings created by the aforementioned masters are beginning to show their age, Raman’s recordings on “Edge of a Song” have an attachment to today’s listener. This will mean that fans of all ages, of any conception of “rock music”, will find something that they like on Raman’s “Edge of a Song”. “Edge of the Wind” adds a little more to Raman’s sound in the inclusion of a piano and bongo-like set of drums. These different constructs diversify Raman’s sound, and this allows for Raman to move in a Scarecrow and Tinman-like sound. I would be surprised if “Edge of the Wind” does not have a second life as a radio hit. It has everything, from intelligent chord progression to a second set of vocals and even still has time to go and make an infectious chorus. “Bustin’ Outta Here” starts slowly and draws forth recollections of an earlier American folk style. While the vocals decidedly take a different tack than the instrumentation would indivate, the meshing together of these two traditions is a sight to behold. The production of the songs on “Edge of a Song” is perfect.

It is laissez faire enough to allow the nuances of Raman’s sound to shine, but is close enough to cradle the compositions and really imbue them with that something extra. Unlike many of the singer songwriters that are making a living in the current period, Raman actually wants to change the world with each and every one of his tracks on “Edge of a Song”. In this, I see a lot of Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger in Raman. The tracks have a tremendous replay value, and hopefully this album will be enough to draw ever-increasing crowds to those dates when Raman plays live. I know I will be keeping my eye on this shining star, and hoping that all the right things happen to him.

- Neufutur Magazine


"Edge of a Song is a personal gift of an album!"

Chip Raman's Edge of a Song is a personal gift of an album. With such a soothing, calm voice and an artistic bent that extends to the paintings depicting hands being held and kisses about to be bussed decorating the CD insert, it comes as no surprise that his day job is as a teacher specializing in expressive arts therapy.

If you're allergic to nostalgia, you may want to turn to another artist. The third verse of "Edge Of the Wind" the compelling and contemplative opening track of the debut CD begins "I wonder about the edge of a song/Where it touches someone's heart." And that pretty much works as a metaphor for the whole album. There's lots of lyrics about souls, love, and lonesome roads in the Neil Young, Crosby, Stills & Nash influenced sound.

However it's not all-earnest heartfelt new age stuff. The CD also includes a live video performance of "I'm In Touch With My Feelings" which displays a much more lighthearted side to Raman than listeners are able to garner from the music itself.

Raman's light sunny guitar sound play alongside his Tom Petty-esque vocals in a clearly produced album that attempts to touch the hearts and souls of its listeners in a way that pushes them towards a positive place. File this album under sleepy Sunday mornings with decaf and the New Yorker.

- IndieMusicStop by Michael Dittman


"Art, Heart, and Musical Revelry"

Eclectic Vibes - February 2008
Author: Andrew Frey
Added: 02/03/2008
CHIP RAMAN “Edge Of A Song” (Rosebud Records) This talented singer/songwriter has packaged art, heart and musical revelry into one cohesive package bearing his name and providing a nice platform for spreading his thought-provoking, easy going compositions.

- Maximum Ink Music Magazine


"This Artist Is An Artist"

A FolkWax Reprint
This review originally ran in FolkWax issue #347 on 11/22/2007

Chip Raman
Edge Of A Song
Rosebud Records
FolkWax Rating: 9 out of 10

This Artist Is An Artist

Let’s begin by stating categorically that this artist is an artist. My meaning? Like the walls and ceiling of Chip Raman’s Philadelphia home, the twenty-four-page liner booklet lavishly features reproductions of his paintings. The CD liner cover shot appears abstract and, while initially the eye may be drawn to the broad, white curve that spirals off into orange infinity in the centre of the work, in the lower left corner there appears to be parallel lines, possibly strings on the fingerboard of a guitar? Some of the latter, unattached and free, twist and turn across the bottom and vertical right edge of the work. Could they possibly be sounds, word and melody heard by listeners, which drift irrevocably into the ether, lost forever until the song is performed again? In truth, the painting is reproduced in full on the front of the liner booklet and therein the aforementioned “unattached strings” also frame the vertical left and top edge of the painting where they merge with those coming from the right. As I said at the outset, the artist is a musician, the musician is a poet, the poet is an artist…the circle unbroken.

Raman co-produced his twelve-track debut recording with Asheville-based musician Chris Rosser, and it features spot on vocal and instrumental contributions from numerous Kerrville Folk Festival regulars - Adam & Kris, Chuck Brodsky, Jamie Byrd, Joe Carlson, Brian Cutean, Darlene, Steve Fisher, Stefanie Fix, Lowry Olafson, Don Porterfield, and Dirje Smith. It’s thirteen years since Chip Raman first strode across the acres of the Quiet Valley Ranch (QVR), the home of the Kerrville Folk Festival, and he’s returned to the festival and this Hill Country home-away-from-home every year since. It’s hardly a stretch to state that during this eighteen-day, annual event, music is being performed 24/7 somewhere on the ranch. Some of the most beautiful creations ever to assail the human ear come not from Mainstage or Threadgill Theatre performers, but from the hands and mouth of a shadowy figure picked out by the flickering light of a late-night campfire. You may never learn the identity of the singer, but the memory and the song will remain forever in the hearts of those who were truly listening.

If the latter paragraph appears convoluted, Raman’s songs truly deserve that introduction. In the press release that accompanied the CD, Raman reveals that the opening track, “Edge Of The Wind,” was inspired by one such magical, jaw-dropping QVR moment when the union of words and melody raises hairs on arms and sends shivers down many a spine. Across three verses Raman contemplates the possibility that mighty oaks from tiny acorns could grow as the chorus of voices around the campfire (in song, the participants pray for peace) rolls outward across the land like a giant wave engulfing villages, towns, and cities. In the process, the peace song finds expression “In the voices of a hundred million souls.” “Bustin’ Outta Here” proposes the principle of always fully embracing life while in the spiritually-tinged “My True Companion,” post the bridge line that runs “I was given my reply by my true companion,” it’s fitting that Raman’s voice is double tracked. The lyric to “Beautiful,” a from-me-to-you song of praise, does not contain many words. Those present are simply, ample, and beautiful.

A self-portrait of the artist appears on the page opposite the “Lonesome Painter” lyric. Verse-on-verse the spiritually-driven words give expression to the “late at night” internal tumult that leads to colour-fuelled expression on canvas, to the sound of one voice singing, or to rhyming words and lines written on paper. In the fourth and final verse, drawing upon those threads, Raman gives expression to the riches and possibilities that this life offers those who seek them. Written soon after 9/11, in the second verse of “Nature Of Things” Raman questions “the useless separation and isolation” that prevails among this planet’s nations. In the closing verse he chides mankind for being “so blind and unkind.” Seeking a positive way forward through the aforementioned disarray, in the third verse Raman proffers “I absolutely refuse to believe/We are not nearer to where we ought to be.” A couple of tracks further on, in the narrative style of Tom Pacheco, “The Post-It Note” amounts to an almost-eight-minute-long conversation with The Creator.

Love permeates every second of “Every Night,” while “Segue” is a light and airy acoustic guitar and banjo instrumental (both played by Raman) and he’s supported by Don Porterfield on bass and conga player Joe Carlson. Sonically speaking, “Little Mighty One” is equally stripped down, with Raman’s voice and guitar supported solely by Smith’s cello. In the role of teacher/counsellor, Raman has worked with talented as well as emotionally disturbed youngsters and “Little Mighty One” was doubtless inspired by one of the latter, aged six – “Meeting you was not by chance,” “I could cry a million tears/At the very thought of you/How you brave your gravest fears/Tough it out, see it through” and, not least, “I hope someday you get this song/I hope you find some peace of mind/I pray you live that long.” Talk about saving the best for last…the penultimate “Aspire” praises the beauty inherent in a song arising (and more), while I can precisely pinpoint the QVR as the location and Sunday, June 8, 2003, as the date when the splendour of Raman’s anthemic, choral album closer “Thank You” first pierced my heart.

Chip Raman, I salute you. Peace be with you, in fact, with all of us. I thank you.

Two signs are knowingly posted at the gate to the QVR campground. They state, simply, “Welcome home” and “It can be like this always.” Oh that the rest of this world pursued the same path.

I almost forgot…Edge Of A Song contains a video segment filmed late at night at Threadgill Theatre and finds Raman energetically performing the rib-tickling “I’m In Touch With My Feelings.”

Arthur Wood is a founding editor of FolkWax

Copyright Visionation, Ltd 2004. All Rights Reserved with limited rights offered to artist and their agents for publicity purposes only with proper citation to FolkWax, FolkWax.com, or www.folkwax.com.

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- FolkWax


Discography

Edge of a Song released 9/8/07

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Bio

PHILLY BASED SINGER/SONGWRITER CHIP RAMAN OFFERS HOPE FOR A
NEW GENERATION OF FOLK/ROCKERS

Philadelphia based singer-songwriter Chip Raman has been exploring the deep and mysterious places where music touches the heart since the Eighties, when he was lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist in the popular Philly band Allies. Local heroes on South Street throughout the decade, despite playing mellow rock in a town founded on classic soul, Allies performed “two of theirs and one of ours” by mixing covers of Neil Young, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jackson Browne and Bob Seger with Raman’s earliest tunes. This was just the beginning of Raman’s fascinating two-decade journey of soul searching and development as a versatile solo artist with lyrics that speak spiritually and emotionally to these uncertain times.

Intensely personal yet powerfully universal, his songwriting mixes stories of personal growth, sweetly echoing love songs, and incisive social commentary. 

The overall spiritual vibe of his music is also reflected in Raman’s choice as producer to include a small choir of friends on several songs. He got the inspiration  at a midnight campfire at the Texas famed Kerrville Folk Festival (where he has been a faithful attendee for 20 years) when friends spontaneously chimed into four part harmonies. 

An accomplished painter who engages in both surrealism and portraits of people and concepts like brotherhood, Chip has covered most of his home studio with large paintings and installations. Examples of Raman’s stunning work can be found  at www.chipraman.com

Raman didn’t focus on painting until 1996, when he moved back to Philadelphia after eight years in the Berkeley California area, where he honed his writing and performing chops and switched from flat picking to fingerstyle guitar playing. He was a regular at open mics and taking up an informal residency at Berkeley, CA's community arts organization, the Freight and Salvage.

Raman has he taught music, arts, and poetry to gifted children.  He spent several years as a counselor working with children and adolescents with emotional and psychiatric disorders.  

These days, Chip divides his time into recording music, painting, woodworking, and writing about the creative process.   


Band Members