- Chris Castle
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Chris Castle 
Chris Castle, 2007Background information Birth name Chris Castle Born January 29, 1976 Origin Sandusky, Ohio, United States Genres Folk Occupations Singer-songwriter Instruments Vocals
Guitar
harmonicaYears active 1994 – present Website [5] Chris Castle (born January 29, 1976, in Sandusky, Ohio) is a folk/Americana singer-songwriter. Cleveland Magazine has described his writing as an "authentic connection to the world-weary soul of American roots music",[1] while The New London Day's Rick Koster calls Castle "a visionary songwriter"[2] and "a tunesmith of almost scary vision, narrative acumen and hooky instinct".[3]
Contents
Early life
Born in Sandusky, Ohio, in 1976, Castle's family moved to the village of New London, Ohio around the time he was four. His parents had migrated to Ohio from eastern Kentucky in the late sixties, and Castle was exposed to Appalachian Music from a very early age. His father (a Vietnam War veteran) committed suicide when Castle was nine years old; a theme that would later inspire Castle's first official single and video, Both Ends of A Gun.[4]
Early Career
Castle spent his teen years as a staff-writer in Nashville, Tennessee, working under such notable writers as; Casey Kelly (The Cowboy Rides Away), Wood Newton (Bobbie Sue), and Earl Bud Lee (Friends in Low Places). At twenty-one, he would leave Music Row, marry his first wife, have a son, and perform in bars and coffeehouses in northern Ohio.[5]
He remarried in 2001, and enrolled in Bowling Green State University as a Political Science major shortly thereafter. Chris met Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Albee on campus in 2006, when the veteran playwright convinced him to return to songwriting. "He's the one who talked me into dropping out of college, so I can blame it on (him). He was telling me about holding up a mirror to our society and holding it up to yourself. He had great stuff to say about real art."[6]As A Recording Artist
Castle's 2007 release, Hollow Bones in Monotone, received solid reviews,[7] and established Castle as an accepted player in the modern folk scene. That same year, Castle was named featured artist at Folk Alley,[8] in addition to being a finalist in the Granite State Songwriting Contest, in Newmarket, New Hampshire.[9]
Since then, Castle has shared stages with such acts as: Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen, Uncle Monk (with Tommy Ramone), David Amram, Jimmy Webb, Radney Foster, Richard Shindell, Jonathan Edwards, Junior Brown, The Wood Brothers, Amy Speace, David Wax Museum, Tommy Womack, Eilen Jewell, Will Kimbrough, The Everybodyfields, Peter Case, Jim White, Jenny Owen Youngs, and Jeff Black, among others.[10]
In September 2010, Castle launched "The Drenched Earth Tour" with The Womack Family Band at The Winchester Music Hall (Lakewood, OH).[11] In May and June of 2011, he released "The Firelands EP" and "Of God & Man (Beneath the Sun)" through his own record label- Dirtsandwich Music Company, LLC. Dirtsandwich also serves as Castle's publishing arm, and is a BMI-affiliated corporation.
His forthcoming album, Last Bird Home, was recorded during July and August of 2011 at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY. Contributing to the record were the Band's Garth Hudson, Maud Hudson, Tommy Ramone of the Ramones, Larry Campbell (musician), Gabriel Butterfield (son of Blues legend Paul Butterfield) and The Womack Family Band, among others.[12]
Discography
- Hollow Bones in Monotone (2007) Dirtsandwich Music Company, LLC
- Crazy Wind (2008) Dirtsandwich Music Company, LLC
- Songbook Volume I (2009) Dirtsandwich Music Company, LLC
- Perfect World (2010) Dirtsandwich Music Company, LLC
- The Firelands EP (2011) Dirtsandwich Music Company, LLC
- Of God & Man (Beneath the Sun) Dirtsandwich Music Company, LLC
References
- ^ Jim Vickers, Cleveland Magazine (Cleveland, Ohio) May, 2008
- ^ Rick Koster, The Day (New London, Connecticut), August 7, 2008
- ^ [1]
- ^ dirtsandwich.com accessdate=10-01-2008
- ^ Adam Mastroianni, Norwalk Reflector (Norwalk, Ohio) July 31, 2007
- ^ Dave Richards, Erie Times-News (Erie, Pennsylvania) September 15, 2011
- ^ coolcleveland.com accessdate=10-01-08
- ^ folkalley.com
- ^ Granite State Songwriting Contest at MySpace, accessdate=10-01-2008
- ^ [[2]]
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
External links
Categories:- American singer-songwriters
- Living people
- 1976 births
- Americana music
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