“Tell Me Was it Love or Some High Grade Alcohol?”
by matt at 6:00 am on November 30th, 2005 in Entertainment
As is probably the case with most people, the summer after I graduated high school marked the beginning of several transitions. I left Pittsburgh, my home of 18 years, for Tuscaloosa, Alabama and spent a few months training for the upcoming football season and acclimating myself to newfound freedoms and life in the deep south. Music had always been important to me, but living in a college town and getting to see bands on a regular basis was a big change, as was being around people from across the country. The early 90s were of course a dynamic time, producing Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden and other breakthrough artists. But one could not survive on grunge alone, and in that spirit I bought a cassette called Living With The Law by Chris Whitley that came highly recommended. Almost 15 years later, and despite listening to almost no rock ‘n’ roll anymore, that album remains one of my all-time favorites.
Living With The Law is a masterful blend of blues and rock mixed with Whitley’s vocals that run from confident yet world-weary storytelling to howling falsetto (sometimes in the same line) and of course his trusty steel guitar. The whole album sounds like it was made running from, rather than living with, the law across a dusty plain, all the while alternately reminiscing and trying to forget times past. Malcolm Burns’s production is described by many as cinematic, at once dramatic while remaining subtle and never busy. But it’s Whitley’s lyrics that provide the cinema in songs like “Big Sky Country” and “Phone Call from Leavenworth,” where the storyteller in him paints a picture more vivid than any video.
Living With The Law came out as I was beginning to listen to much less rock and much more hip hop and techno, so while I never stopped listening to it, I did not keep up with Whitley’s career as much as maybe I should have given his brilliant start. You may be wondering why I’ve chosen to talk about an album from 1991, of a genre I no longer follow, when I don’t even spend much time here writing about the music I listen to every day. Well, Chris Whitley died last week of lung cancer at age 45.
Some words from his family can be found here, and his obituary is here. Hopefully, he’s in his own big sky country with his steel guitar and a microphone. Rest in peace, Chris. You will be missed.
**If you want to check out Living With The Law, I have uploaded it here. If you like that, check out his other work here. I’m going to try to work my way back through his catalog as soon as possible. For his debut alone, he deserved a level of recognition much higher than he received.
Jim Battle wrote:
Oh, shit. That is terrible news. I too bought Chris Whitley’s first album, and for me it was a stretch. At the time listing to mostly “modern rock”, it took some convincing to listen to a guy with a steel guitar. I’ve bought every album of his since; while some appeal to me more than others, I’ve loved them all. My first date with my now wife was to see him at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. His albums have spanned the gamut (the more studio heavy Living with the Law, spare one man & guitar (Dirt Floor), full throttle electric distortion (Din of Ecstasy), ballads, covers (Perfect Day), live (Live at Martyr’s), etc) but always it is his voicing (vocals and guitar) that comes through. Listen to his covers album and after a few listens, he has redefined the song he is covering.
He is not a technical guitar genious — 1000 notes a minute type of player. His genious is in his chord progressions and resistance to taking the obvious tack in a song. The longing comes through in his voice and his guitar lines.
As a backhanded complement: like a lot of people, I sometimes get swayed by the musicians aura or reputation and will keep buying that musicians albums even when they suck sometimes (eg, pete townsend). In the case of Chris Whitley, I never was taken with his personality, the little of it I knew, and had no interest in following his personal life. I just wanted to know when the next album was coming out, or if he’d be playing in town.
Matt, go to your used CD store and fill out your collection — you missed the best of Chris Whitley.
A couple years back when I was ripping my 700 or so CDs to mp3, I made a list of “killer” songs. So of the 8000 songs, this list has my 50 favorite — and ten of them were Chris Whitley. On different days I’d produce different lists, but here is what I noted at the time I made the list:
Chris Whitley, “Can’t Get Off”, from Din of Ecstasy
Chris Whitley, “Accordingly”, from Dirt Floor
Chris Whitley, “From One Island to Another”, from Dirt Floor
Chris Whitley, “Dust Radio”, from Living with the Law
Chris Whitley, “Drifting”, from Perfect Day
Jimi Hendrix cover
Chris Whitley, “As Flat as the Earth”, from Terra Incognita
Chris Whitley, “Weightless”, from Terra Incognita
plaintive, higher register for him, effective harmonic jumps
Chris Whitley, “Breaking Your Fall”, from Hotel Vast Horizon
Chris Whitley, “Frontier”, from Hotel Vast Horizon
Chris Whitley, “Silhouette”, from Hotel Vast Horizon
all sparse, haunting
Posted 30 Nov 2005 at 7:24 am ¶
matt wrote:
thanks for sharing, jim. time to catch up.
Posted 30 Nov 2005 at 7:30 am ¶
Jeff The Neck wrote:
Great post on Chris and his music…he will always be on of my favorites…
Posted 21 Apr 2008 at 1:43 pm ¶