dean huntley chamberlain

Born in San Francisco and raised in the SF Bay area, Dean Chamberlain came to LA and co-founded The Motels as a crazyass Zeppelin style funk rock band. Then formed the trio Code Blue and released 2 albums (Warner Bros., Enigma/Capitol). He was also a staff songwriter for Paramount Picture’s Famous Music, produced indie records and owned the rehearsal/recording studio where Jane’s Addiction and Guns N’ Roses got their start. Later had a publishing deal and had songs in Pretty in Pink, 21 Jump Street and Friday the 13th (TV) among others.

After playing in a heavy acid blues band (Orange Wedge with members of TSOL and The Mentors), he took a detour and worked on Stephen Hawking’s "A Brief History of Time" CD-ROM, then moved to the Digital Entertainment Network (DEN). There he produced Fear of a Punk Planet, a site devoted to punk rock culture and community and produced and directed concert videos, interviews with leading bands and punk icons, and Punktivism, a documentary on the national punk political activism scene.

He watched "No Direction Home" a couple of years ago, picked up an old Harmony acoustic guitar and started writing and playing again. He cut demo tracks with Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello) and Mitch Marine (Dwight Yoakum, Smashmouth) on drums.

After playing solo acoustic shows around town and in the high Mojave Desert for a year, he's put together The Honorable DHC, a folk power trio featuring Bryan Head (The Plimsouls, John Doe, Dick Dale, Shelby Lynne, Dead Rock West) on drums and Dave Meshell (John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Etta James, Shelby Lynn, Peter Case, The Neighborhood Bullies) on bass. Gospel songs make up a big part of the set and for those songs he's joined by The Boulevard Choir featuring Babs Macdonald, Vicki Hill, Andrea Nunn, Grant Langston and others.

They play at Ronnie Mack’s Barn Dance, The Echo, Cinema Bar, The Mint and other venues locally and in the desert, occasionally joined by Dave Gleason, Dafni, Dan Janisch, Kevin Keller and others. He played a few shows at this year's South by Southwest and had a blast. He lives in Hollywood, CA where he's a member of the Hollywood Mass Gospel Choir. Members of the choir join him for recordings and live shows from time to time.

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Greg Burk (L.A. Times, L.A. Weekly) at metaljazz.com says: "Got to admit I was surprised when L.A.’s funky rockin’ guitar rhythm machine Dean Chamberlain (Motels, Code Blue, Skin) decided to go folkie, but he does the form credit, and that right hand still whips the strings with inerrant momentum."