Christopher Rees.co.uk
Home of Singer Songwriter Christopher Rees
Album Number 5...
I'm currently working hard finishing up the as yet untitled 5th album which was partly recorded in Austin, Texas in March 2010 with 'The South Austin Horns'.
I'll come out of hiding in August for a few festival appearances with the full band. Please see 'Live' page for details. See you soon...x
CHUCK PROPHET UK TOUR - MAY 2010.
Christopher Rees is thrilled to have been invited to open for the great Chuck Prophet on his forthcoming UK tour in May 2010. Please see 'Live Section' for venue details and dates.
Visit the Chuck Prophet website here...
Christopher Rees & The South Austin Horns!!!
Christopher Rees is now in Austin, Texas recording with The South Austin Horns for a new album, prior to performing at the SXSW Music Festival on March 17th, 18th & 19th. Please see 'Live' section for more details of venues etc...
VISIT THE NEW SHOP!!!
The new Red Eye Music online Shop is now up and running.
Buy all Christopher Rees albums
here...Red Eye Music Shop
Download DEVIL'S BRIDGE!!!!
Devil's Bridge is available to download from May 4th. Click the link below to buy from i-Tunes.
It will be available in the shops from May 11th 2009.
THE HANDSOME FAMILY - IRELAND TOUR JUNE 2009
Christopher Rees is very pleased to announce that he will join The Handsome Family for 5 dates around Ireland in June 2009.
03
June–Crane
Lane, Cork
04
June–Whelans, Dublin
05
June–The Errgial Inn, Belfast
06
June–Roisin Dubh, Galway
07
June–Cleere’s, Kilkenny
It will be Rees's first tour of Ireland. "I've been wanting to tour Ireland for a long time so to finally have the opportunity to do so in such wonderful company as The Handsome Family and in such great venues is very exciting", said Rees.
KRISTIN HERSH - UK TOUR MAY 2009
Christopher Rees is delighted to announce that he's been invited to join Kristin Hersh on her UK tour in May 2009. "Kristin has always been one of my biggest inspirations and I'm very excited about the tour". said Chris. See 'LIVE' section for gig details...
MOJO Club @ The Great Escape (w/Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys & The Handsome Family
Christopher Rees will join the line up at this years Great Escape Festival in Brighton on Thursday May 14th at the prestigious Old Market venue.
He has been invited to open the MOJO Club night on a fantastic bill that also boasts superb American artists Dan Auerbach (of The Black Keys) & The Handsome Family.
www.myspace.com/danauerbachmusic
www.myspace.com/thehandsomefamily
BBC Wales Music - Interview
Click on the link below to read
BBC Wales Music - Interview
NEW ALBUM - MAY 4TH 2009
Fourth Album delivers a potent cocktail of menacing murder blues, tremulous rockabilly and intoxicating country roots.
Following his critically acclaimed 2007 album Cautionary Tales, “A genuinely roots affair…that deserves to be admired”,(Fred Dellar – MOJO) Welsh singer, song writer, multi instrumentalist and producer Christopher Rees has developed his narrative storytelling even further with his fourth album Devil’s Bridge.
Largely revolving around compelling tales of murder and misconduct, he also incorporates themes like curiosity, karma, confessions, mortality, sacrifice, shadows, heaven, hell, desolation, imprisonment, conviction and awakeningto create his most disarmingly upbeat and immediate record yet.
With ‘Prescott’s Confession’ he adopts a traditional Murder ballad lyric from 1833 and delivers a brand new banjo stomp, while self-penned originals like ‘What Walks Outside My Window?’ (Released as a digital download single on 6TH April 2009) and ‘Shadows In The Night’ sound as if they could’ve come from a 50’s Rockabilly session at Sun Studio in Memphis (a place Rees visited as part of his musical pilgrimage through Tennessee last year). The presence of veteran rockabilly guitarists Pete Mathison (Ray Davies) and John Lewis (The Rimshots) also help inject a certain vintage authenticity with a nod in the direction of Elvis, Cash, Johnny Burnette and Gene Vincent.
Katy Rowe adds her irresistible violin to the frenzied bluegrass of ‘Kicked Out By Love’ and drummer Dan Tilbury (The Snakes, Redlands Palomino Company) provides inspired drumming throughout. Rees stretches himself to take care of all other instrumentation including guitars, banjo, mandolin, lap steel, church organ, piano, bass, choral backing voices and chapel shaking, foot stamping, hand clapping percussion!
Devil’s Bridge is clearly informed by Rees’ love of Americana in all its diverse and dynamic glory. From Rock’n’Roll to Bluegrass, Gospel, Blues, Country, Spaghetti Western, Rockabilly and Appalachian Folk it’s all there. The cinematic tremolo guitars so favoured by QuentinTarantino and David Lynch also provide some enticing atmosphere but as the 12 piece choral sections to songs like ‘All Our Beds Are Made’ and ‘World’s Fall Apart Everyday’ show, there remains something quintessentially Welsh about it.
Titled Devil’s Bridge because the album was predominantly recorded in a mountain retreat near the village of the same name in Ceredigion, Mid Wales and because of its connotations to the subject matter, it sees Rees take another giant step forward on a journey that becomes ever more fascinating and rewarding with each new album.
NEW SINGLE - APRIL 6TH 2009
Christopher Rees makes a barnstorming return with ‘What Walks Outside My Window?’
The first single from his forthcoming 4th album ‘Devil’s Bridge’ will be released by Red Eye Music on April 6TH 2009 as a digital download via i-Tunes etc...
Download
'What Walks Outside My Window?'
& 'Take My Hand'
Click on link below to buy from iTunes Store
A firm live favourite ‘What Walks Outside My Window?’ is a rip roaring slice of 50’s styled rockabilly / murder blues about paranoid people-watching at 4am!
With a healthy nod in the direction of the legendary Sun Studio and its most famous exports Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, as well as other rockabilly heroes like Johnny Burnette and Gene Vincent it provides a high voltage taste of the tremulous thrills contained on Devil’s Bridge which will be released a month later on May 4th.
Dylan Thomas Fringe Festival Video!
Here's a lil bit of film of Christopher Rees performing 'Prescott's Confession' at The Dylan Thomas Fringe Festival in Swansea on November 7th 2008. The lunchtime audience was pretty small but the natural reverb in the Waterfront Museum Atrium was huge! Click HERE to view it.
The Stranglers!!!!!!
In a last minute addition Christopher Rees was invited to open for legendary 70's punk survivors The Stranglers at Cardiff University on Thursday October 16th. He will also open for The Stranglers at Aberystwyth Arts Center on Friday October 17th.
See 'Live' section for more gig details...
Billy Joe Shaver - Support @ The Luminaire, London.
Christopher Rees will be opening for Texas Country legend Billy Joe Shaver at The Luminaire in London on Sunday September 14th. (see 'Live' section or Here for details).
End Of The Road...
Christopher Rees will perform with band!!! at End Of The Road Festival on Friday September 12th at 3pm on the - TIPI TENT *Bimble Inn, incl. The Local.
So get there early to catch em!!
Fingers crossed the rain stays away as it promises to be an amazing weekend.
Check out www.endoftheroadfestival.com for the full line up.
Drowned In Sound article about 'The Chosen Ten'!!
Tenby Folk Festival (with Cerys Matthews & more...)
Christopher Rees has just been added to the bill for the opening night of the Tenby Folk Festival on Saturday August 23rd at the DeValence Pavillion alongside some great acts...
Cerys Matthews, Mabon, Nick Harper, The Storys, Fred Morrison Trio, Christopher Rees, Amy Wadge, Howl Griff, Halflight (acoustic),
It should be a great festival! Tenby is a beautiful place and just incase the weather continues to be as horrid as it has been recently, it has the added benefit of being 'indoors' at the lovely DeValence Pavillion. So you won't get a soaking or need wellies!!Hurrah!!
The festival will continue across the bank holiday weekend with more wonderful acts from across Wales and further afield.
please visit http://gwylenaidyrenfys.co.uk/Tenbyindex.html for more details and tickets details.
Ticket Sales Weekend tickets are £53 per person. Day tickets are priced at £25 per person per day. Tickets are strictly limited to 700 per day. Local ticket Booking Tenby To book tickets by telephone for the event please call De Valence Pavilion Box Office on 01834 843568
Box Office open Monday – Friday 9am-1pm
To purchase tickets in person visit the Box Office: De Valence Upper Frog Street Tenby SA70 7JD
MOJO Review of Cautionary Tales
There's a rather nice review of Cautionary Tales in this months issue of MOJO.
CAUTIONARY TALES - OUT September 3rd 2007!!!
ALBUM OUT SEPTEMBER 3rd
DOWNLOAD SINGLE
BOTTOM DOLLAR
(Featuring Victoria Williams)
August 27th
Click below to download!
"FULL OF SIMMERING SOUL".(Phil Alexander, Editor in Chief - MOJO)
Album - Cautionary Tales Released - September 3rd 2007
Single - Bottom Dollar (Featuring Victoria Williams) Download - August 27th 2007
“Just think twice before you kiss, she may be a mentalist!”(A Cautionary Tale)
Christopher Rees returns with his third and finest album ‘Cautionary Tales’ on September 3 rd, preceded by the single Bottom Dollar on August 27th
Following the epic orchestral intensity of his 2004 debut The Sweetest Ache, “Seriously amazing stuff” (NME) and the rustic warmth of 2005’s Alone On A Mountain Top, “Deliciously raw and spellbinding…A wonderful homespun triumph” (MOJO), Cautionary Tales combines the string-laden sophistication of the first with the intimate, rootsy qualities of the second to stunning effect.
The surprise success of Alone On A Mountain Top, which charmed and won audiences around the world from Cardiff to Canada and New York to New Zealand, has honed Rees’ skills as a live performer and song writer. Touring extensively with kindred spirits William Elliott Whitmore, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Freakwater, The Deadstring Brothers and Kelly Joe Phelps amongst others has also empowered him on stage and in the studio.
Once again recorded and produced by Rees himself, mostly in an isolated mid Walesmountain retreat, Cautionary Tales is culled from a prolific list of over forty songs. The result is an inspiring showcase of the diverse depths of his impassioned song writing, spanning everything from soulful country and banjo driven Appalachian folk to raucous delta blues/rock and sublime string-soaked ballads.
Sharing the microphone for the very first time with an illustrious cast of guest singers, Cautionary Tales features a rare appearance from much-loved American heroine Victoria Williams who contributes her inimitable charms to the duet Bottom Dollar, while Belgian siren Charline Rose (Calexico, Giant Sand) exudes ‘that’ breathy French sensuality on closing track Until Love Comes Around Again. Becky Newman (The Hot Puppies) also provides a significant and seductive female presence on several songs including the jaw-dropping murder ballad Mary Lee.
For an artist who has already been highly acclaimed for ploughing his own unflinching furrow through matters of the heart with devastating beauty, Cautionary Tales is by far Rees’ most comprehensive and cohesive collection of songs yet. As the title suggests it’s a record filled with well-lived tales of life, love and death as he traverses a gamut of emotions and human behaviour.
Each of the seven deadly sins is illustrated in the beautiful 16-page booklet and addressed in song. Opening track Bucket Full Of Holes tackles gluttony and the perils of promiscuity, How Did You Sleep Last Night rages with envy, It Won’t Come Easy deals with sloth, A Cautionary Tale - dangerous blind lust, Mary Lee - anger, A Sinner’s Serenade - greed and Don’t Let Your Heart Grow Cold - defiant pride.
You could call Cautionary Tales a twisted love album but that would be to miss many of the subtleties at play in this lyrical tour-de-force. For as much as Rees explores sin he also touches upon love’s redeeming virtues of faith, hope and charity with equal poignancy, and takes the listener on a revealing journey through a heart that is bruised but unbeaten, brutal yet beautiful and as world-weary as it is wilful. Sometimes contradictions make perfect sense.
Christopher Rees will be touring the UKwith a full band and select solo dates throughout September and October. Check myspace.com/christopherrees for latest updates...
RICHARD HAWLEY - Support -Fri Aug 31st 2007!!!
Christopher Rees to support Richard Hawley at Brecheiniog Theatre in Brecon on Friday August 31st!!!! See Live section for more details...
Downloads available!!!
You can now downloads both Alone On A Mountain Top (The Ty Bach Twt Sessions) and The Sweetest Ache directly from the Red Eye Music shop via the links below as well as all other good download retailers.
Happy shopping!!
Download The Sweetest Ache
Download Alone On A Mountain Top
Apologies!!!!
Ok, I know I haven't updated this site for far too long. Myspace seems to have taken over!!! Apologies!!!
I will update it very soon I promise as loads of exciting stuff is going on.
In the meantime keep checking myspace.com/christopherrees for news and more recent blogs etc.
The new album Cautionary Tales will be out in August 2007. There are a few tracks from the album up on myspace to give you a taste.
Right I'm off to Canada to play the North By North East music festival in Toronto.
The gig is on Saturday June 9th at The Supermarket, 268 Augusta Ave, Toronto. Onstage at 9pm.
See ya!
Best wishes,
Chris.x
Christopher Rees to support 'Son Of Dave'
I've been spending too much time in the studio recently finishing off the new album, (It's almost done now and sounding pretty damn good!!!) so haven't been gigging too much but was delighted to be asked to open up for the awesome Canadian one man blues explosion 'Son Of Dave' on Tuesday Oct 24th.
It's onboard the newly revamped 'Thekla' in Bristol.
A really cool venue on a boat !!!!!
Check out Son Of dave via
The Thekla Social .
The Grove, East Mud Dock, Bristol, BS1 4RB
Cost: £7adv. 18+
I'll be playing lots of new songs from the forthcoming third album now titled 'Cautionary Tales' and some old staples. It should be a great night so come on down if you can make it. There should be enough foot stomping action to really get the boat a rockin'!! (if you'll pardon the pun!!) Hope to see you there!
Big Love
Chris.x
Christopher Rees confirmed as main support for American Music Club mainman Mark Eitzel on his two forthcoming UK live dates in Bristol and Oxford.
As both a solo artist and the frontman for enduring cult favorites American Music Club , Mark Eitzel established himself among the truly powerful forces in contemporary music; a hauntingly evocative singer, he earned even greater notoriety for his brilliance as a composer, combining the energy of punk, the pastoral beauty of folk, and the melodrama of lounge music to build one of the most impressive and darkly poetic bodies of songs in the modern pop canon. "America's Greatest Living Lyricist." - The Guardian
Mark Eitzel & Christopher Rees play:-
May, 29 2006 at The Louisiana, Bristol, England, UK.
May, 30 2006 at Port Mahon, Oxford, England, UK. Check 'Live' section for other forthcoming gigs...
'VICTORIA WILLIAMS' DUETS WITH CHRISTOPHER REES
- After producing six tracks for the the new Creekdippers album featuring former Jayhawks singer and co-founder Mark Olsen and the wonderful Victoria Williams, Christopher Rees recently recorded a duet with Victoria on a new song called Bottom Dollar which will be included on his forthcoming third album.
- Chris is elated and overwhelmed with excitement at the result.
- "It's probably the most catchy song I think I've ever written with big, rousing sing-a-long choruses and her presence has given it an extra lease of life, lifting it's spirit to a wonderous level".
- "I feel so happy to have been able to work with Victoria after being such a fan of her music for about 13 years. She really is an absolute joy to be around and a truely incredible singer and musician".
- Victoria is one of the most loved and well respected female musicians in American music with people like Lou Reed, Pearl Jam, Evan Dando, Kristin Hersh, Lucinda Williams, REM and lots more all covering her songs. She has also worked with some amazing people like Neil Young who she toured the US with for 23 dates back in 1993 to Van Dyke Parks (String arranger for Brian Wilson's Smile, Tim Buckley and lots, lots more) and an incredible cast of musicians from Tom Wait's bass player Greg Cohen to REM's Peter Buck who played on her 1994 album Loose.
- So you get an idea of her magnetic talent and charm!!!!
- Anyone not familiar with her music please visit
- www.creekdipper.com
New Zealand Tour February 2006
Christopher Rees completed a short tour of New Zealand in February 2006 with 4 official headline gigs to support the release of 'Alone On A Mountain Top' down under via Southbound Distribution www.southbound.co.nz
New Zealand Tour February 2006
Auckland - The Dogs Bollix (Feb 19th)
Wellington - Bar Bodega (Feb 20th)
Takaka - The Mussel Inn (Feb 22nd)
Wellington - Bar Indigo (Feb 24th).
He also made 3 unofficial , random apperances in bars in Tauranga with good friend Daryl Belbin, and a couple of drunken late night guest appearances in Auckland with new friends from the awesome Auckland band Flammable Tramp.
On Tuesday Feb 21st he appeared on national daytime TV. It was the Good Morning programme on Channel One which is the equivalent of This Morning in the UK. The NZ Richard and Judy if you will. Played two songs and did an interview about the tour/album/ etc. alongside the Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark who was also appearing on the same show.
He also received substantial airtime on national radio (Feb 24th) with a 45 min segment on Radio New Zealand where they played two songs from the album, he performed two songs live in the studio and was interviewed over the course of the 45min slot between 1.15pm -2pm.
He also did a variety of other smaller regional Radio and press interviews which helped raise his profile down under!!!
Canadian Tour October 2005
Christopher Rees completed a successful 12 date solo tour of Eastern Canada in October 2005.
He performed in support of American greats Kelly Joe Phelps www.kellyjoephelps.net and Freakwater www.freakwater.net as well as fellow Welshman Martyn Joseph www.piperecords.co.uk
Canadian Tour Dates October 2005
Halifax Pop Explosion, NS. Gingers Tavern- Oct 15th with Jill Barber www.jillbarber.com
Moncton, NB. The Right Spot- Oct 16th with Colonial Quarrels
Saint John, NB. Sessions Cafe - Oct 18th
Wakefield,QC. The Black Sheep Inn- Oct 20th with Kelly Joe Phelps
Wakefield,QC. The Black Sheep Inn - Oct 21st with Martyn Joseph
Toronto,ON. El Mocambo - Oct 22nd with Freakwater
Montreal,QC. La Sala Rosa - Oct 23rd with Freakwater
Quebec City, QC. Bar Le Sacrilege - Oct 26th (Live on CKRL 89.1)
Quebec City, QC. Bar Le Sacrilege - Oct 27th Guelph, ON. Jimmy Jazz - Oct 29th
Hamilton, ON. Club Absinthe - Oct 31st
Oshawa, ON. Catch22cafe- Nov 1st
Many thanks go out to all the kind souls and friends both old and new who offered their hospitality and helped Chris along the way. xxx
Janice Long Session / Canadian Tour
CHRISTOPHER REES will be performing a live studio session on The Janice Long Show - BBC Radio 2 - (click here for details) at 12.20am Sunday Night/Monday Morning October 2nd.
He will perform two songs from his latest album 'Alone On A Mountain Top' and will be chatting to Janice about the making of the album and his forthcoming Canadian tour.
To buy 'Alone on a mountain Top' please click here.
Christopher Rees will embark on his fist proper tour of Canada in October to support the release of 'Alone On A Mountain Top'in North America via MapleNationWide / Universal on October 11th.
Canada Dates coming soon
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