What is it about these tall lean attractive men with eyebrows?! This particular one is Chris Dallman, songwriter and performer. I knew about Chris from Zach Quinto’s shoutouts and from hearing clips of his songs on ZQC. Nice breathy voice, insistent beat, words that strike a chord with me.
“On a day like today
When I do everything I always say I won’t
Just when things were riding fine
I lose sight of the line between do and don’t”
Yep. I’ve been there. This guy speaks to me.
Friends had seen Chris perform and said he was wonderful. But those were in bigger cities than Santa Fe, New Mexico. I figured it would be years before I could see him. So when I found out he would be doing a show in Colorado Springs on Aug 30, just a five hour drive away, I leapt at the opportunity. Destiny Raven was coming too, so I’d have someone I knew there.
The performance was at Shuga’s, a restaurant that has live music on Monday evenings. Chris arrived to a chorus of hello’s – lots of friends of his there. He had met Destiny before when she attended a performance he did in LA so he greeted her warmly. He even greeted me warmly though he only knew me from Twitter. A lovely man. I had of course seen him in pictures and videos, but the unexpected part was what an impish look peeks out from his eyes periodically. This guy not only speaks profoundly of life; he would also be fun to hang out with. Plus he has nice biceps!
(syzzlyn's note: WOOHOOO!!!)
Chris set up in a corner of the restaurant, with audio equipment, a mic and his guitar. Initially it was a small group. He laughed that he knew everyone in the room. What a treat to have almost a private at-home kind of atmosphere! Later more people came in, but even so it felt very intimate. Turns out he was there for another gig and was doing this one primarily for local friends.
Chris doesn’t have a lot of audience patter in his performance, even with a familiar group. He mostly plays continuously from song to song. Some were old familiars like “Mistake” from his album “Race the Light” and “A Little Bit of Blue” from “Never Was”. Some were ones new to me, from an album he plans to release this winter.
The style of his songs ranges from soft and mellow to insistent beat. His voice acts as a separate instrument, more than a way to deliver lyrics. Indeed sometimes I can’t discern the lyrics on the first hearing since I’m not an audio type person. The range in his voice by itself captures interest. To see and here more of Chris, check out
his website!
Clearly this is a man I’ll keep my eye on. He’s going places, and I hope to arrange for one of them to be in Santa Fe.
Thanks to LindsaySF for the blog and photos!!
