Christopher M. Listorti

PRESS: New Haven Advocate, Interview By Kathleen Cei
Category: Music

Stuck in a Corner With...
CHRIS LISTORTI!

By: Kathleen Cei

Age: 24.
Bands: Formerly, with Call It Arson, The Flaming Tsunamis, Avenger of Awry; currently performing solo (chrislistorti.com or myspace.com/chrislistorti).
Next gig: At The Space on Dec. 28 with Aeroplane, 1929, The Low Anthem, Quiet Life, James Downes and Flu Season.
Music style: Indie rock with a folk influence. Armed with: A Santa Cruz Dreadnought and chilled throat vibrations.
Wishes he had: The skin flute or a Hammond B3 organ.
First record bought: Weezer's Blue album.
First concert: Earth Crisis, in the late late '90s.
Best show seen at the New Haven Coliseum: Rush.
Listening to: Titles, Tour; The Polyphonic Spree, Sunset Rubdown.
While cleaning: Pig Destroyer.
Album that changed his life: The Knobs, Pour It On. A student of mine's friend passed away a few years ago, and when he met me he said his friend and I were kindred spirits. He showed me the album he recorded before he passed away, and it was amazing—kind of like Elliott Smith meets The Replacements. I wish I could share it with everyone; I'll probably do a few covers of his stuff, because his music needs to be heard.
First notes: At age four. My parents were music teachers, so I was constantly surrounded by music.
Always wins: Tic-Tac-Toe, if you let me go first.
Buy him a drink: Maybe we could light one up out back?
On TV: I hate television; think for yourself.
Favorite websites: Craigslist.org, callitarson.com.
Join another local band for a day: Titles. Or, um...Darik and the Funbags? Um...no.
Most memorable local show: At the Hanover House, back in '99 or 2000. Moshing, pig-piling and breaking bones at an Avenger of Awry and Blood Has Been Shed show. My boy James broke his hand!
Also found: Crying. Just kidding; I teach little people how to understand and make music.
Fun fact about Chris: I'm a veggie mouth. That means a vegetarian (to some, a vegan).
Question he wished I asked: Why are we here? - By: Kathleen Cei

PRESS: New Haven Advocate; Music Notes; Barnaba Callings By Jefferey Hart

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Music Notes: Barnaba Callings
The local pop scene gets politicized in Old Saybrook.

Thursday, June 05, 2008
By Jefferey Hart

About 60 people milled around the backyard of the large white home of local musician Christopher Listorti two Saturdays ago in Old Saybrook. Balmy breezes blew as band after band took to the back-porch stage and sent songs ringing into the warm, suburban night. Volunteers in bright yellow t-shirts dotted the lawn, manning information/donation tables and playing badminton.

New London's Quiet Life and Trumbull's Monitor and the Merrimack played early sets and then hit the road, heading off to other engagements. Each brought their own version of American roots music and original contemporary songwriting. Indie, punk, and folk/emo followed, from Jonny Rodgers, Shutting Down the Factory and Ned Moore respectively. Listorti—who, along with outreach worker Melissa Roby, organized the event—gave an enchanting and dynamic performance of his own compositions.

Listorti's voice is strong and pure, using "mic control" to great effect, and blending effortlessly with Ned Moore, who sang harmonies during one tune. The songs are beautifully fingerpicked acoustic folk with sweeping melodies. As a stageman, Listorti is funny and engaging. He continually expressed, onstage and off, how happy he was with the event's success in bringing money and attention to the Barnaba Institute, a grass-roots nonprofit agency that rescues young women who've been abused and forced into prostitution.

Many people think of human trafficking—a euphemism for 21st century slavery—as something going on far away in Eastern Europe or Asia. In fact, it's also happening right here in Connecticut. The infamous Bloods gang makes no attempt to hide the fact that it runs prostitution rings in places like Waterbury, Bridgeport and Hartford.

The Barnaba Institute's outreach director, Jen Sheehin, says that according to a Waterbury undercover police officer, "50 to 150 girls are rotated in and out of the city each week." One of the difficulties in reaching out to these girls is the limited amount of time the outreach workers have to build trust. Often, the victims will only have a few moments away from their pimp, and will be moved from city to city every few days. Beyond the promise of help, outreach workers start with simple gifts of food, hygiene products or clothing. Frustrating the workers' efforts are the brutal but frighteningly effective means used by the pimps to control the women including abusing them or separating them from their children. This threat is often enough to keep the captives from trying to escape or seek help, explains the institute's director, Alexis Taylor Letos.

Shockingly, many of the young prostitutes on the streets of cities up and down the East Coast are taken from quiet shoreline towns in Connecticut. For this reason the Barnaba Institute has placed an emphasis on preventative education.

To find out more about the institute and its founder Frank Barnaba's 30-year mission of rescuing girls from abuse and servitude, go to barnabainstitute.org.

This was a multi-band house party with a difference—helping restore the concept of what "home" can mean to those who've been denied one.

editor@newhavenadvocate.com

http://www.barnabainstitute.org/6.html - By: Jefferey Hart (New Haven Advocate)