Chris Castle
Cleveland, Ohio, United States | SELF
Music
Press
Chris Castle
Hollow Bones in Monotone
After more than a decade and a half of playing music, 32-year-old Chris Castle is still a well-kept secret. Maybe it’s because the Norwalk, Ohio-based singer-songwriter put down his guitar for six years before re-emerging last summer to record this 11-song collection, which feels like a confession from the heart of the American Midwest.
His soulful voice and engaging lyrics rest easily over stripped-down skeletons of acoustic guitar that shuffle along dirt roads and through tired towns. These are songs shaded with longing and loss and redemption.
Castle says he aimed to create “an album of songs rather than production and arrangement.” What he ends up with is an authentic connection to the world-weary soul of American roots music.
Our Pick: “Both Ends of a Gun”
- Cleveland Magazine
Chris Castle
Hollow Bones in Monotone
If a Midwestern heartland sound satisfies your soul and pleases your ears, then Norwalk-based singer-songwriter Chris Castle is your guy. Castle's reflective Americana roots sound and honest, coffeehouse vibe is minimalist like Nick Drake, rootsy like J.D. Souther and earnest like Josh Rouse. And you can add a pinch of Ryan Adams and Elliot Smith in for good measure.
Hollow Bones in Monotone, Castle's first new long player in six years, is a true dashboard confessional and sure to leave a peaceful, easy feeling for listeners. In a recently published review, one fan said "[Castle] builds songs as if they were rooms, and then he invites you into them." Couldn't have said it any better myself.
Recorded over Memorial Day weekend of 2007 at OMNIsound studios in Nashville, this 11-song set found Castle and his compatriots Joe Linstrum (acoustic guitar / vocals) and Tony Schaffer (bass) focusing on bright acoustic guitars, harmonicas and underpinning the whole affair with a 1964 Gibson bass. From the opening strains of "Fields of Stone" to the chugging "Seven Minutes Fast," the beautiful "Down" and picturesque set-stealer "Both Ends of a Gun," there just isn't a bad cut on the disc. A great offering and summer roadtrip treat, Hollow Bones in Monotone makes the time fly. Be sure to hit the repeat button on this one, friends... not that you'll need that cue after hearing it yourself.
Chris Castle opens for Radney Foster at the Beachland Ballroom on May 10 and again for Peter Case at Wilbert's on May 20.
From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian
peterATcoolcleveland.com
- Cool Cleveland .com
Somewhere in the rich, fertile musical garden tilled by Darrell Scott, Ron Sexsmith and Ryan Adams, grows an obscure bloom named Chris Castle- a truly fine singer/songwriter who should be much more famous and succesful than he is.
Part of the reason he's so great is probably because Castle doesn't do it for money or fame; writing songs is utterly programmed into his DNA. He'd write songs even if he thought he didn't want to. After a frustrating experience trying to fit into the Nashville establishment, Castle actually did try to quit.
It's our good fortune that he re-emerged with an excellent batch of tunes on last year's "Hollow Bones in Monotone" CD.
Now, after holing up in Levon Helm's studio to record the follow-up, the soon-to-be-released "Crazy Wind", Castle brings his band to New London (CT) Friday for a date at the Bank Street Cafe.
This is a killer group, and Castle is a visionary songwriter- and our own Village Jammers appear in support.
- Rick Koster - The Day
Discography
____________
Perfect World (2010)
Songbook Volume I (2009)
Crazy Wind (2008)
*Recorded @ Levon Helm Studios & Squam Sound, by Justin Guip and Randy Roos.
Hollow Bones in Monotone (2007)
*Recorded @ OMNIsound Studios, by Bob Ingison.
Photos
Bio
__________
Had Frank Lloyd Wright been born a songwriter, his parents might have named him Chris Castle. His attention to structure and detail bring writers like Bob Dylan or Paul Simon, though his Appalachian roots and midwestern dialect make Castle markedly more "country" than either.
Chris has shared stages with Hall of Fame inductees, Grammy winners and nominees, and cutting-edge Folk/Americana acts, including; Chris Hillman (the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers), Radney Foster, Tommy Ramone (the Ramones, Uncle Monk), Jimmy Webb, Junior Brown, Jonathan Edwards, the Womack Family Band, Amy Speace, Will Kimbrough, Richard Shindell, the Wood Brothers, Jim White, the everybodyfields, Eilen Jewell, Jeff Black, and Jenny Owen Youngs.
Castle signed his first Nashville publishing deal when he was fifteen. As The (New London, CT) Day's Rick Koster put it "writing songs is utterly programmed into his DNA".
His 2007 breakthrough disc, Hollow Bones in Monotone, has garnered the indie songwriter a cult-like following in the US and beyond, establishing him as a pivotal player in today's new Folk movement. Castle recorded its follow-up at the Woodstock studio of American music legend Levon Helm (the Band, Bob Dylan).
He has released two additional albums since then, and is currently touring to promote his latest effort, Perfect World.
Links
