Chris Skyhawk

Christopher Skyhawk was born by the name Christopher Louis Lettau on 9-16-62 in Rochester, New York. The oldest of three children, he was profoundly influenced by the environmental, economic, and social conditions in which he was raised. The lifelong illness of one of his siblings was a severe financial stress to his working class family, and the struggle to provide adequate health care marked him with a sense of social justice at a young age. As a child he witnessed the effects of treating Lake Ontario as an industrial sewer, and as a teen he saw many lakes in the Adirondack Mountains be killed by acid rain.
After graduating from S.U.N.Y. at Geneseo in 1984 with a Bachelors Degree in Psychology he spent a period of time hitchhiking around the United States, eventually settling in Northern California in 1985. He began working with emotionally traumatized children in group home settings, and started learning guitar in 1987. After a couple of years singing other peoples songs he got tired of playing cover tunes and his musicianship went dormant. In 1989, in recognition of his deepening connection with the earth he changed his last name. He continued traveling around the western U.S. as often as possible, learning all that he could about the heart of the land and its people. Throughout this time he became increasingly politically involved, joining movements that voiced opposition to U. S. military intervention in Central America and later Iraq. When he moved to Albion, CA, in 1993, he found himself at ground zero of the timber wars in the redwood region. Working with Earth First!, labor groups, Native Americans, and ad hoc community groups, he became deeply involved in the struggle to stop corporate timber giants from exploiting the ecology and economy of the North Coast. His musicianship began to re-emerge, this time as a songwriter. He began to understand that Folk Music was a way that people expressed their triumphs, their defeats, their pain, and their humor. It is a telling of the people’s story, and it tells a history that the textbooks often omit. Joining this great tradition, he began writing about what he saw, and he found an outlet for the pain and joy that he felt as well as an expression for his love of the human family. During this period folk matriarch Rose Garden dubbed him "a young Phil Ochs". He began playing at the courthouses, benefits, and campfires of the redwood region, often solo but sometimes with other grassroots musicians. He founded a band called Acoustic Nation, and for a time they traveled about Northern California playing one of the most eclectic folk blends ever heard- guitar, banjo, accordion, marimba, and various percussion instruments and voices. His personal introspection deepened as he aged and his songwriting began traveling into more personal realms, exploring relationships and themes of common humanity. His work culminated in 2002 with the release of his debut CD "You Were Right”. This work features the talents and creativity of numerous grassroots community. He is currently in the studio working on new material and expects to have a new release in January of 2007.

In addition to being a musician Chris is also a massage therapist, sports official, general handyman, seaweed harvester, and youth counselor. He is active with his community public radio station as a public affairs programmer, and is the proud father of a teenage son.