Event

CRIS WILLIAMSON CD RELEASE SHOW - TAOS

Last year, I began flirting with the idea of recording the music of my peers, my contemporaries, climbing into other peoples material as if it were my own. Like most musicians, this was how I started in the first place, by choosing songs that really spoke to me, that I could therefore inhabit quite easily. That original method is again at play on this new work, Motherland, 10 songs with women somehow in the blood and sinew of each song. There is something freeing about wearing the musical clothes of another and finding that it is not so much a disguise, but rather a perfectly fitting garment. And so, I hunted and chose songs by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Patty Griffin, Eliza Gilkyson, Jackson Browne, Laura Nyro, Leonard Cohen and Jennifer Warnes, John Lennon, and one of my own, the title song,Motherland.

Recorded at Fantasy Recording Studio in Berkeley, Motherland features an all-star band of sisters and brothers. I am so honored to have been produced by Julie Wolf along with some brilliant support from Vicki Randle. These two power houses also played on the CD, along with my dear pal, Barbara Higbie, who brought such beauty to the project. As well, James Deprato and Shelley Doty, both amazing on guitar, are featured, as is Zachary Ostroff on bass and Scott Amendola on drums. I cant wait for you to hear exactly what I mean.

Please do join me, Mar 2, at the MCC in Taos, as we celebrate the release of this new cd of strong and beautiful cover songs - plus a couple new ones of my own. (And, well include some old favorites as well.) So pull these covers up around your ears, and join me in Arizona!

- Cris