Comments on: Today is Chris Whitley Tribute Day

By: Erin

Erin — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 08:34:31 +0000

I remember just having survived Hurricane Wilma in South Florida when I heard from a mutual friend that Chris was sick and then soon after that he passed away. That was a bad year for me.

I am thrilled though to see there are other Floridian fans. I know he didn’t tour here much hwew but I was fortunate enough to see him in many other states (lost count) in the country and make some of the best friends ever through Chris…. (who I know will remain life long friends)

Watching him perform live still remains on the top 3 best things ever for me. Especially the last time I saw him perform in my living room for a friend who had cancer. She survived but sadly Chris did not.

I also remember the first time I ever heard him when I was just a kid in school back in 91. I’ve never been the same since.

Great to see some of the old familiars posting on this thread too ;-)

Peace

Erin Elizabeth

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:20:45 +0000

Thanks for this, Eric. Still miss him.

By: Bobby DeVito

Bobby DeVito — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:37:05 +0000

Thank you Eric.

YOU were the guy that handed me the copy of “din” that day in the office at JAM Magazine and said “I think you’ll like this”.

That sent me DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE, did it not?

Later that year, I was at CMJ, and was working with an artist named Dan Zanes.

After Dan’s set, he came out and said “I have a special surprise for you all, ladies and gentlemen CHRIS WHITLEY”

I nearly fell off my barstool.

There were about 14 people there, since Clive Davis had given everyone from BMG passes to the Annie Lennox show, I was the only record company “geek” there.

Chris came up, with three Nationals, a female guitar tech who kept lighting cigs and incense, and tunes his guitars as he thrashed them SOUNDLY.

It was like time had stopped for me. I had heard “din”, but had NO IDEA that he could do all this stuff solo.

Afterwards, he came up and sat next to me at the bar.

I nervously asked if I could buy him a beer. It was the start of something beautiful that continues to this day.

And thankfully Eric, you were a guy who always “got it” when it came to Chris. It is a bond that you and I share, and so do a lot of others.

RIP dust brother…..on the good red road…..my secret jesus.

By: Joey Lindstrom

Joey Lindstrom — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:52:11 +0000

I, too, am marking this anniversary with some sadness and regret, along with a whole heaping pile of LOUD Chris Whitley on the stereo. No better way to celebrate the man’s career than with his music!

I saw him live in Calgary in 1991. He played the show with a band and it was quite enjoyable, but by far the highlight was Phone Call From Leavenworth, during which he dismissed the band, the lights went low, the spotlight focused on him… and he blew us away with that song. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined being so transfixed by just one guy on a guitar with a footboard!

I know it’s an overused, trite thing to say, but Chris Whitley really was utterly unique – and while the world is poorer for his passing, we are all richer for having known at least some small part of him.

RIP Chris – and all my best to Trixie and Dan et al

By: Amanda Schurr

Amanda Schurr — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:02:49 +0000

Whitley remains a personal hero, from his early stuff to Reiter In. Still can’t quite believe he’s gone… Thanks for this post.

By: Josh Barnes

Josh Barnes — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:04:56 +0000

Eric, thanks for the tribute. I was lucky enough to see Chris Whitley many times, the first time opening for Tom Petty in Albany, NY in the fall of 1991, and meet him a couple times, too. He was a gentle, sweet guy, interested in who you were or where you came from and genuinely grateful that you liked his music, but definitely followed by some dark unhappiness. I’ll never forget hearing him play “Automatic” on his national steel at a solo show at Fletcher’s in Baltimore a few months before Terra Incognita came out and having the hair on my arms stand up, an effect his music always had on me. The experience of getting an advance copy of Din from a record store friend in DC and listening to “Narcotic Prayer” on repeat for an entire overnight. Bruce Springsteen has ordered Living With The Law to played in the arenas before many of his shows over the past few years, and I’ve been there and heard it. Chris told me that the only musician he met who made him feel like a bashful fan was Iggy Pop. I’ve always harbored this dream of Spike Lee directing a video for “Wild Country” from Dirt Floor; I have no idea why, but I know what it should look like. Dirt Floor as a whole was so criminally overlooked: “Scrapyard Lullabye”, “Dirt Floor”, “Accordingly”? Or his work on Joe Henry’s Fuse album? Being in a Burlington, VT bar on the “Good Red Road” tour in 1992 when women in their 30s tossed bras at him like he was Tom Jones. Or the big review/profile of Whitley and Din in the New York Times, and the Hendrix comparisons. I’m still surprised that “Big Sky Country” hasn’t been covered by a male or female soul singer yet to become a big hit. I don’t know. I have a picture of him and me, his cds, an autographed box of Marlboros, good memories and the lingering sadness of his early death and his being overlooked. Thanks for bringing him back today.

By: Joran Slane

Joran Slane — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:03:56 +0000

I actually HAVE seen Chris Whitley perform. Same story, though. Austin, SXSW, 2003. Very small “industry badges only” party. Flee (WMNF) snuck me his own badge out an open window so that I could finally see my idol in the flesh. Probably about 50 people in the room and I stood three feet from Whitley the entire time. He performed on a small stage, maybe a foot off the ground in the corner of the bar. He played alone. I was frozen. Jen kept asking me if I needed a drink (this was SXSW after all) and I kept saying “No, I’m cool.”

He eventually coaxed a friend on stage to accompany him for two songs on a crappy little electric Rhodes piano that just happened to be sitting against a wall. If memory serves it was either Daniel Lanois or “Hotel Vast Horizon” producer Heiko Schramm.

In between songs, he rambled incoherently about the war, and about how we were making things so much worse. He just kept sighing into the microphone, “Just stop fighting.”

It was an unforgettable experience, and more people need to hear this man’s catalog. “Accordingly” from Dirt Floor is one of the greatest ballads ever written. EVER. It was played at my wedding. My favorite Whitley track, “Above the Din” from Din of Ecstasy.

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Today is Chris Whitley Tribute Day | Watch Band Videos — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:58:36 +0000

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