preacher boy
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preacher boy

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Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"All-Music Guide"

"From the sound of the hypnotic recurring riff that propels the album-opening "On and on It Goes," the listener is assured that The Devil's Buttermilk is not your typical blues album and that Preacher Boy is definitely not your usual Telecaster-toting modern bluesman. With a guttural black-cat moan to match any death metal howler, Preacher Boy (born Christopher Watkins) sermonizes at the alter of hard knocks, reading from the good book of Muddy Waters and spreading the gospel of Howlin' Wolf. The Devil's Buttermilk, Watkins' fourth album, is lyrically populated with madmen and geniuses, drunkards and dreamers who pursue sin and salvation with an equal zeal. Watkins plays most of the instruments on The Devil's Buttermilk, mixing up thick, ominous, hard-rocking dirges with nightmarish, ethereal ballads, wielding the vivid imagery of his lyrics like a lightning strike, hitting the listener with thunderous tales of woe and redemption. Watkins crosses the traditional country blues of haunted legends like Robert Johnson and Son House with a modern, rock-influenced perspective similar to Jon Spencer or Jack White of the White Stripes, branding the sound with his own distinctive mark. With The Devil's Buttermilk, Preacher Boy stands apart from the legion of Stevie Ray Vaughan clones to blaze his own individual and original path toward the blues."-— - Keith Gordon


Discography

preacher boy.
discography
albums:

The Devil's Buttermilk
2000, Wah Tup Records/Manifesto Records

Crow
1998, Wah Tup Records

The Tenderloin EP
1997, Blind Pig Records/Wah Tup Records

Gutters and Pews
1996, Blind Pig Records

Preacher Boy and the Natural Blues
1995, Blind Pig Records

compilations/collaborations:

Eagle-Eye Cherry: Sub Rosa
forthcoming album, due for release september 2003 on polygram
(preacher boy co-writes and performs on seven songs)

Blind Pig 25-Year Anniversary CD
2002, Blind Pig Records
(preacher boy video included on enhanced CD-Rom, also features tommy castro, john
mooney, deborah coleman, roy rogers, popa chubby, norton buffalo, and more)

Eagle-Eye Cherry: Present/Future (US release)
2001, MCA Records
(preacher boy co-writes and records 6 songs)

Eagle-Eye Cherry: Promises Made (single)
2001, Superstudio/Diesel Music AB/Sony
(preacher boy co-writes and records)

Eagle-Eye Cherry: Long Way Around (single)
2000, Superstudio/Diesel Music AB/Polygram International
(preacher boy co-writes and records)

Eagle-Eye Cherry: Living in the Present Future (world release)
2000, Superstudio/Diesel Music AB/Polygram International
(preacher boy co-writes and records 6 songs)

New Coat of Paint: The Songs of Tom Waits
2000, Manifesto Records
(preacher boy contributes one track, also features screamin' jay hawkins, lydia
lunch, neko case, andre williams, knoxville girls, floyd dixon, and more)

Joe Louis Walker Presents Mean Street Blues
1998, Mean Streets Records
(preacher boy contributes one track, also features alvin youngblood hart, lavay
smith, mark hummel, and more)

Blind Pig 20-Year Anniversary CD
1997, Blind Pig Records
(features one preacher boy track, also features tommy castro, john mooney, deborah
coleman, roy rogers, popa chubby, norton buffalo, and more)

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

preacher boy.


First and foremost Preacher Boy is a songwriter and solo performer. He mixes primal roots with starkly compelling lyrical and musical influences resulting in a blend that is utterly ageless and completely contemporary. Preacher Boy is also a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist playing guitar, national steel, banjo, mandolin, piano, organ, and harmonica on the road and on disc.

Christopher Watkins is Preacher Boy.

In 1995, hailed as an "alt-blues wunderkid" Blind Pig Records released his first disc Preacher Boy And The Natural Blues. This was followed in 1996 by Gutters And Pews. Both discs were widely heralded for their songwriting and profound originality and are featured in the Rolling Stone Guide To Jazz And Blues.
"Preach" toured the US leading a band in support of both discs.

In 1997 in a conscious effort to expand the boundaries of his music, Preacher Boy signed with Manchester, England-based Wah Tup Records and relocated to the UK. Wah Tup released Crow in 1998. It was experimental, ambitious, and genre defying. As was the accompanying tour, again with a band. Unanimous praise for the disc came from Mojo, Melody Maker, and other pop music publications recognizing Preacher Boy as, "A songwriter of startling originality."

In September of 1998, "Preach" played his first show as a solo performer in London, and by the next afternoon he had signed an exclusive booking agreement with UK powerhouse Primary Talent. Within three weeks he was touring throughout Europe, opening for Eagle-Eye Cherry in 1500-3000 seat venues. In addition, his multi-instrumental skills were featured in Eagle-Eye's set each night.

The pairing was an instant personal and professional success leading to Preach developing a co-writing and recording partnership with Eagle-Eye Cherry which continues to today. Preacher Boy co-wrote and recorded six songs with Eagle-Eye and producer Rick Rubin at New York's Magic Shop studio for Eagle-Eye's Present Future disc which was released by MCA in October of 2001. Preacher Boy and Eagle-Eye are currently working on Eagle-Eye's third album.

In late 1999 Preacher Boy returned to the US and the studio to complete The Devil's Buttermilk, which was released by LA-based Manifesto Records in October of 2000. The disc showcased his finely honed songwriting and performance chops, prompting Phoenix New Times to hail the album as, "A tour-de-force from a devilishly talented performer and writer."

Also in 2000 Preacher Boy contributed one track to the highly successful Tom Waits tribute disc A New Coat Of Paint, and had his prose and poetry published by MWE Press in Volume III of their popular In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself series. Preacher Boy spent most of 2001 writing and touring the US solo in support of "Buttermilk." Along the way his performances garnered raves like that from Seattle's The Stranger who wrote, "Don't miss this show, he's a one-man musician/wizard."

Preacher Boy moved to New York at the end of 2001 and has been busy previewing new material live up and down the eastern seaboard, solo and with a stellar new band of New York musicians. His new album will be released in Fall of 2003.

"Preach" continues to redefine himself as a writer and performer offering further proof of what audiences and critics across the globe have already discovered...Preacher Boy is a singularly original artist who's time is now.