The Observer, April 18, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 25
Case undergraduate shows off musical skills at Barking Spider
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Chris Black was admittedly nervous before performing at the Barking Spider Tavern last Friday.
"This was my first solo gig," he said afterwards. "It was something different and a bit intimidating."
Still, after submitting music to the Barking Spider, he was signed him up for a gig and performed as scheduled, with only a few problems arising when he needed to retune his two acoustic guitars.
Black is currently a sophomore at Case Western Reserve University, majoring in music and economics, and hailing from Darien, Conn. In his spare time, he writes and records songs on whatever sorts of instruments he can get his hands on, and now, he is starting to take his musical skills out of the studio.
He began playing music at an early age, gaining classical training throughout his youth, starting on piano and then moving to violin and viola. Then, at the age of 13, he made a very important discovery.
"I just said to myself, 'Why not play guitar?'" Black said. "I took about a year of lessons, and then everything after that I just taught to myself."
Over the past few years, Black has been working on his songwriting skills. "I have a real love-hate relationship with songwriting," Black said. "Sometimes it'll just come to me, but I have a song that's four years old with lyrics that are still incomplete."
Black showed off his guitar playing and songwriting skills to a small, but supportive crowd at the Barking Spider. He played for about 40 minutes, performing several originals, as well as covers of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and Damien Rice's "Cold Water."
"My influences make no sense," said Black, "The first band that I got into was Aerosmith. Now, I guess I'm into Van Morrison, Damien Rice, John Mayer, and Bob Dylan."
His current influences, though, make perfect sense in the settings of his original work and especially in his voice. His singing combines endearing mumblings of Michael Stipe, the emotive warble of Damien Rice, and the tone of Van Morrison. The songs featured in his performance as well as on his PureVolume and MySpace sites are impressive acoustic ballads. His closing piece, "Where the Earth Meets the Sky" in particular is notable, using the harmonica to a tuneful effect.
"I started playing the harmonica last January," said Black, "and I'm just starting to use it to flesh out my sound. It's begun to change how I write, making things a little folkier."
As far as future plans are concerned, finals will be keeping Black busy for the rest of the semester, but once he gets home, he plans to start a band based out of Darien. Once he returns back to Case in the fall of 2008, he hopes to perform at a Darfur Genocide Awareness concert. Right now, though, Black is still enjoying the success of his first solo performance. "I'm very happy with how it went," he said.
Listen to Chris Black's demos at www.purevolume.com/chrisblack or www.myspace.com/peekaymusic or find him at his Facebook fan page.
