Chris and Lou

Hands down, Chris Sulcer and Lou Samaniego are the dynamic duo of musicality in the region.

By day, as owners of The Commercial Music Group, they create commercial jingles and musical promotions for the corporate world (their NBC-TV News Today promo earned them a 2006 Emmy nomination).

By night, they sing and strum their hearts out in area clubs, pubs and casinos, sharing with happy ears a wealth of original material and popular covers.

The two did more than a year-long run at Blue Chip Casino Rock's Lounge that ended last month. They now have open-run weekly house gigs at two Valparaiso watering holes -- Gaucho's Twisted Martini Lounge on Tuesdays and The Old Style Inn on Thursdays -- while bouncing about Chicagoland on the weekends.

These amazingly gifted songwriters and all-around talented guys make the craft of music-making seem incredibly easy.

Since age 10, Sulcer has been playing guitar, mandolin and bass. Samaniego likewise began playing musical instruments as a preteen. While guitar and bass are his prominent instruments, like his musical idol Paul McCartney, he also plays drums and piano.

As songcrafters, one need only check out the hook-friendly pop tunes they have recorded together over the years as members of the well-respected regional combos Electric X and Acoustic X, or the more recent compositions written since they took to recording and performing simply as "Chris and Lou."

Some of which -- "Like Yesterday," "Ready To Love," "Anything Can Happen" and "Bridges" -- can be heard at www.myspace.com/chrisandlou.

Their dual guitar strumming and vocal harmonizing is not only the vehicle for their own wonderful pop songs in a warm and fuzzy Everly Brothers/Seals & Crofts kind of style, but also enables them to recreate popular favorites covered from a wealth of artists like The Eagles, Eric Clapton and Paul Simon.

While they cover artists from the 1960s to today, perhaps the most requested of their cover material are the many tunes they know by the Beatles.

This is because Samaniego has Paul McCartney's voice down so well, that one almost thinks Sir Paul is hiding behind the curtains helping out.

Each guy takes lead vocals on an even number of songs with the other giving ample backing support, and each sings like a bird.

"Chris and Lou could sing the phone book and impress people," said Paul Braun, who engineered for the duo during their lengthy run at Rock's Lounge in Michigan City's Blue Chip Casino. "Those guys can really sing and they write great songs."

But it is not just their talents, but their unbridled passion that sets Chris and Lou apart from the pack. Music to them is liking breathing; it is something that has to be done to survive.

That is why they can spend their days working on music as a business and then go out three to four nights a week and play music for pleasure -- theirs and ours. How many of you reading this would want to take your work home with you at night?

The two best friends are working on a new original music CD that should be ready for release later this year.

They are knee-deep in work on an original children's music CD as well, and are shopping their songs to various music publishers in the hopes other more famous artists will find one they fancy and record it.

If there is one act that this writer on a personal level never gets tired of catching on stage, it's Chris and Lou. Always entertaining, always professional, always in tune and in pitch, this is top shelf talent that doesn't disappoint.

- Tom Lounges/ NWI Times