Chris Thompson & Coral Creek

When you’re produced by one of the most famous names in the jam band scene – Bill Nershi – you automatically create a buzz of anticipation from fans and critics. Chris Thompson’s new album, The Road Ahead, is worth the hype: It promises certain satisfaction for cheese heads everywhere.

The album features guest appearances by local favorites like Head For the Hills’ Adam Kinghorn, Joe Lessard and James Thomas, who bring their unique flavors of bluegrass into Thompson’s already vibrant collage of influences.

The track “Traffic” features keyboard feeding nicely into a country-based song, and Thompson’s lyrics appeal to all the eco-conscious folks out there. Songs like “Rest my Soul” and “Free Rider” are free of the grass influence and focus on a more traditional rock sound, captivating the listener with irresistible grooves.

The two instrumentals, “Island Bluegrass” and “Rainfall,” showcase the diversity that Thompson and Coral Creek demonstrate during a live show, while the bluegrass aura that fills the middle of the album highlights the band’s roots and features Thompson’s vocals, which blend seamlessly with the ripple of the banjo’s rolls.

Thompson’s strength lies in his unique synthesis of traditional purity and the creativity of new wave bluegrass. His variety of blues, rock and a hint of reggae not only spices up the album’s brightness, but tantalizes the audience with a taste of this band’s potential to sweep you away with inspiring jams live in concert.

myspace.com/coralcreek - Scene Savvant

By Braden Smith

When you’re produced by one of the most famous names in the jam band scene – Bill Nershi – you automatically create a buzz of anticipation from fans and critics. Chris Thompson’s new album, The Road Ahead, is worth the hype: It promises certain satisfaction for cheese heads everywhere.

The album features guest appearances by local favorites like Head For the Hills’ Adam Kinghorn, Joe Lessard and James Thomas, who bring their unique flavors of bluegrass into Thompson’s already vibrant collage of influences.

The track “Traffic” features keyboard feeding nicely into a country-based song, and Thompson’s lyrics appeal to all the eco-conscious folks out there. Songs like “Rest my Soul” and “Free Rider” are free of the grass influence and focus on a more traditional rock sound, captivating the listener with irresistible grooves.

The two instrumentals, “Island Bluegrass” and “Rainfall,” showcase the diversity that Thompson and Coral Creek demonstrate during a live show, while the bluegrass aura that fills the middle of the album highlights the band’s roots and features Thompson’s vocals, which blend seamlessly with the ripple of the banjo’s rolls.

Thompson’s strength lies in his unique synthesis of traditional purity and the creativity of new wave bluegrass. His variety of blues, rock and a hint of reggae not only spices up the album’s brightness, but tantalizes the audience with a taste of this band’s potential to sweep you away with inspiring jams live in concert. - Scene Magazine

By Kyle Mathes

Releasing his third album is Chris Thompson of the front range Colorado band, Coral Creek. “The Road Ahead” was produced by Bill Nershi at Sleeping Giant Studios and has a talented group of musicians that appear on the album including; Keith Moseley, Tyler Grant, Andy Thorn, Christian Teele, Joe Lessard, Adam Kinghorn, Jordan Ramsey, Charlie Provenza, James Thomas, Ayo Awosika, David Reid, and Susannah Thompson.

Chris Thompson describes his music as acoustic fusion, bringing aspects of bluegrass, country, rock, and reggae genres together in a perfected mix. The first song on “The Road Ahead” is the upbeat and foot-stomping song Traffic. With solid guitar coming from both Chris Thompson and Tyler Grant this song sets up the rest of the record perfectly.

The longest track on the album, Gore Massacre, focuses on heavy guitar playing with the energy provided by Thompson’s spirited storytelling ability. A blues infused saxophone brings thoughts and comparisons to a Bruce Hornsby performance. This dark but uplifting tune is the essence of Colorado Bluegrass with heavy jamming and a great story to tell.

In One Eyed Jack, Andy Thorn gets a chance to shine while picking on his banjo. This fun, traditional sounding country tune brings the fun to you. With lyrics that you’re sure to pick up, you’ll be singing along to this one after your first listen. Amazing guitar and banjo licks bring this full circle while you still have a smile on your face.

Thompson’s past experiences of island living show up frequently on this album as well. In Slip Away and Island Bluegrass you get a simple and satisfying taste of reggae infused music while maintaining Thompson’s country/bluegrass roots.

The title track, The Road Ahead, closes that album and is a tune that makes you feel like your driving one of Colorado’s canyons. An energetic guitar, great optimistic lyrics, rolling drums, and a fun banjo make this song one of the best on the album. As the song lyrics go, “As the winds of change come knocking at your door…” you can’t help but feel a little momentum building as Chris Thompson’s new album “The Road Ahead” brings heartfelt and sonically pleasing music to your ears, you may just have to check this album and Coral Creek out for yourself.
- Mountain Weekly News

By Linda Detroy Alexander

Chris Thompson and Coral Creek will perform at the Buffalo Rose for the release of their album, The Road Ahead, on Saturday, Dec. 4. One-third of the proceeds generated from album sales will be donated to Plan International. Photo by JUSTIN SAGARSEE
December 02, 2010 | 10:02 AM
Presenting original tunes for the first time could be a little scary, but Chris Thompson will have some of the region's best-known musicians backing him up when he releases his newest album.

Bill Nershi, of The String Cheese Incident, will get the release party for "The Road Ahead" started at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, at Buffalo Rose, 1119 Washington Ave. Nershi produced the album at his Sleeping Giant studio in Nederland.

Also on hand to keep the evening rocking will be Tyler Grant and Andy Thorn, of the Drew Emmitt Band and Emmitt Nershi Band, and local favorite Adam Kinghorn, a Golden native and member of Head for the Hills.

CDs will be available for purchase at the party for $15, along with a variety of the band's T-shirts. Tracks from "The Road Ahead" can be sampled at Thompson's website, www.coralcreek.net, where fans can also purchase the CD. It is also available online at www.cdbaby.com and at music retail outlets on the Front Range.





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"The Road Ahead" is Thompson's third album, but the first to qualify as a solo record.

"I wrote all the songs for it," he said, "and it's the first one done in a truly professional environment."

Thompson characterizes his music as acoustic fusion, bringing together elements of reggae, bluegrass, country and rock. He has lived and performed across the United States, as well as in Mexico, southern Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. He and his wife, Susannah, moved to Golden in 2001, and he put together his band, Coral Creek, in 2003.

"Making the record was part of a change from me being a musician in a band and supporting other lead singers to me stepping to the front of the stage," Thompson said. "About a year ago, I got more serious about what I'm doing with my music. Cutting a really good, professional-quality album was the next step in moving my music career up a couple of levels."

It was also a chance for Nershi to try out a new recording system developed by digital audio pioneer Gus Skinas. Thompson met Nershi when he scheduled Nershi to play at the Golden Hotel.

"We had a conversation about my interest in recording," Thompson said, "and about his interest in using Gus' system. It's a super-high-density digital process, and for purists, it's a cutting-edge recording platform."

Thompson is doing double duty with "The Road Ahead." Thirty percent of proceeds from sales of the album will go to Plan International, a nonprofit organization that works to promote child rights and improve the lives of children in developing countries.

"I've been sponsoring children through Plan International since I was a teenager," Thompson said. "I've done a number of fundraising events for the organization, and I want to take my involvement to a new level. We're using Coral Creek as a pilot to help Plan develop ways to connect with music and the fan community, like having bands provide a presence for Plan at festivals." - Metro North Newspapers

By Brian F. Johnson

Chris Thompson could have picked any old producer. The singer/songwriter, who had home recorded two previous albums, had finally gotten his business to the point where he could take the time off to record some songs that he’d had kicking around for years. He could have just hit ‘record’ in his garage and laid down the album.

But instead, he met a relatively unlikely producer who, in the long run, ended up shaping his release The Road Ahead in unimaginable ways. The producer was Bill Nershi, of Colorado’s legendary String Cheese Incident.

“I?had the good fortune of meeting Billy at a time when he wasn’t really busy with String Cheese,” said Thompson in a recent interview with The Marquee. “We got him to come down to Golden to play some shows with his wife at the Golden Hotel. Eventually, I was getting ready to record and heard through friends about his studio, Sleeping Giant. He seemed to catch onto the idea pretty quickly, but originally, we had talked about him engineering it. The idea of producing came up later in the conversation.”
Nonetheless, the decision to have Nershi produce the record, at his studio, was a turning point in the project. Thompson was in between a few musicians in his band, and was exploring options of having other players fill in those parts. After some discussion, Nershi said he could “make a few calls” to see who he could find, and the next thing Thompson knew, he had an all-star cast of musicians playing on his album. Nershi brought in Keith Moseley of String Cheese, Tyler Grant and Andy Thorn of the Emmitt/Nershi Band, and famed Colorado drummer Christian Teele of eTown. Throw in some guest performances by members of Head For the Hills and Thompsons’ The Road Ahead took on a life of its own.

“I’m not sure how the process would have been different if Billy was just engineering, but throughout the whole process, he gave a whole lot of creative direction,” Thompson said.

Another part of that direction came in the form of gear. Nershi called in Sonoma Recording System creator Gus Skinas of the Super Audio Center in Boulder. Skinas’ system, in the easiest explanation, makes digital recordings sound like analog recordings. “I had been working with Gus a little bit and he made the equipment available to me. The sound is amazing. It’s a beautiful recording platform,” said Bill Nershi in a separate conversation with The Marquee.

So, they had the musicians. They had the gear, and now all they needed were the songs, and Thompson had plenty of them to choose from. “A couple of these songs I wrote back in 1993. Several of them were new in the last 12 months, and there were a couple other songs that I had recorded before, but not released. The selection process was a lot like, ‘Hey Billy, here are 20 songs, any one of which could be good.’ We just went through and picked what we thought was the strongest material. It ended up as a bunch of songs that came from all stages of my song-writing life,” Thompson said. “The arrangements got tweaked a little bit, but for the most part, they got recorded as they were written.”

Nershi added, “He had a lot of good songs and I enjoyed working on them and listening to the band. You know, Chris is a great guy. I liked his enthusiasm about the music. He has a lot of fun with it and for people to come over to my house to record, I’ve got to essentially live with them for a week or two, so I wanted to do this with someone I got along with.”

The album, not surprisingly, ranges from straight singer/songwriter folk, to some Garcia-inspired Dead-like tunes, some bluegrass, and of course, a few songs that have a String Cheese flavor to it. Thompson is careful to pepper different influences without them taking over. The album’s first track, for example, “Traffic,” could be a country song. There’s a grit to it that screams “Country.” But that flavor doesn’t overwhelm the whole song and, in fact, the song sets up the rest of the record perfectly for a variety of sounds and influences — from the funky-rooted “Rest My?Soul” to the newgrass inspired title track that caps the album.

So with the release of The Road Ahead, Thompson is finally giving his music the careful treatment he’s always wanted to, but never had the chance to do before. “The first two records were more of a documentary,” Thompson said. “My wife, who is also a fantastic songwriter, and I recorded all of them ourselves. It was serious, but it was seriously done in my garage. This was the professional setup I was looking for.”

- Marquee Magazine