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WHETHER INTENTIONALLY or not, Chris Merritt is one funny dude; on his CD "Pixie and the Bear," he begins "Andrew" with a memory of driving with a friend: "We sang with a Daft Punk song/And you told me to sing the right notes/Or you swore you would kick my ass." The recollection is commonplace enough, but it captures the camaraderie of a road trip, and Merritt's deadpan delivery makes the moment more tender than goofy.
That's a common theme in Merritt's piano-driven tunes: He tells stories about people and events that aren't terribly unusual, and yet his voice and delivery draw you in to find out what happens next. On "Arizona," he sings about an all-consuming crush on a girl he has just met; with the added sweet vocals of his bandmates at the end, his lovelorn Ben Folds-like tone captures that feeling better than words do.
"Pixie and the Bear" is a double album, yet he changes style and tone enough to keep things interesting: The tune "A Song About Being Frustrated While Watching Layer Cake the Movie Written in a Layered Style at Times Similar to Cake the Band" is almost an electronica track, while the harmonies of Heidi St. Julien make "Quinn" one of the album's most memorable numbers.
-- Catherine P. Lewis - The Washington Post
Discography
Radio airplay: "North" on 106.1 FM Charlottesville, VA
2008 - Chris Merritt - Pixie and the Bear
2007 - Chris Merritt - Hello, Little Captain
2006 - Upperville - EP
2005 - Paperface - The Legend of Harley Knowles (Takeover Records Release)
2004 - Paperface - The Legend of Harley Knowles (Self Release)
2003 - Paperface - Rock, Scissors
2001 - Paperface - Jimmy's Bad Day With Chicken
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Bio
Chris Merritt
Website: http://www.chrismerrittmusic.com
For bookings, Contact Catherine Runge Ceigersmidt: booking@chrismerrittmusic.com
Raised in the dense Blue Ridge Mountains of Northern Virginia, Chris Merritt started playing the piano at the age of seven. Since then, he has written and recorded over 1,000 original songs and performed across the U.S., Canada and Japan. Even as an independent artist, his jazz-influenced, quirky style has gained him a steadily growing cult following across the world.
Merritt "plays the piano like a guitar," and combines keyboards with eight-bit Nintendo sounds, catchy meoldies with layered vocal harmonies, and eclectic subject matter with personal lyrics.
As a child, Chris was obsessed with jazz and blues. By age 12, Chris was recording next to jazz legend Marcus Roberts and playing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on a float in the Rose Bowl Parade. He spent two years in Los Angeles as the lead singer of his band, Paperface, signed to Takeover Records, and another year performing independently under his own name. In 2007, Chris moved to Salt Lake City under the encouragement of childhood friend Tim Fellow, who assumed drumming and managing duties.
Chris Merritt and his new trio were soon drawing local crowds of over a thousand. They played together for the next two busy years, performing over 100 U.S. shows, being chosen for the "Top Six" in Billboard Magazine's Indie World Series, opening for rock legend Ben Folds, doing a ten-stop tour of Japan, lending songs to two independent films, and recording the double-album, "Pixie and the Bear."
Recently, Chris returned home to Northern Virginia and is playing to growing crowds along the East Coast.
Chris Merritt has shared the stage with Ben Folds, Marcus Roberts, Ozma, Matt and Kim, Robert Sledge (of Ben Folds Five),
Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band), Reel Big Fish, Craig's Brother, Ron Blake (SNL Band), Rashawn Ross (Dave Matthews Band),
Wycliffe Gordon (Wynton Marsalis), Chris Slade (AC/DC), The Show is The Rainbow, and John Beasly (Miles Davis).
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