Christopher's most recent release Your Age
is None of Your Business/What Do You Believe? is available
on CD and via download! The two new songs were recorded during
sessions for his forthcoming album "Piece of the Puzzle,"
due sometime in 2009.Welcome to
christopherkent.com!
Christopher -- as you may already know -- is an award-winning songwriter and long-time performer and recording artist. He's also an author with dozens of articles published and several books in the works (on many subjects, including songwriting, which he taught in New York City for many years). Here, you can check out his music and writings, and songwriters visiting the site can also check out excerpts from his forthcoming book, Songwriting Demystified.
Please drop us a line! (You can reach Chris by sending e-mail to chris@christopherkent.com.)
Update on Christopher's upcoming release!
Christopher has been hard at work on his upcoming album project. which will be part of a unique multi-media release. (Sorrycan't say too much more about the multi-media part just yet!) The new album will feature 11 previously unrecorded songs, plus a new version of the title song, Piece of the Puzzle. A folk version of Piece of the Puzzle was released on a limited basis a few years ago; it received airplay on several stations up and down the East Coast. The new version, notes Christopher, is anything but "folk music." "Don't get me wrong," he says. "I love a simple, straight-ahead recording when the song is solid. But anyone who's heard my earlier recordings, including last year's CD single, knows that I like working with a band and creating a full, interesting sound experience." To that end, the new album relies on many of the instrumentalists heard on the recent CD single. (To hear excerpts from the songs on that recording, see below.)
"The musical part of the project is about three-quarters complete," Christopher noted in late summer. "All the basic band tracks are recorde; now we're working on the background arrangements, solo instruments, harmony vocals and so on." The original plan had been to release the entire multi-media project before the end of the year, but Christopher says putting everything together has been more time-consuming than he expected. "The work on the musical part of the project that we've completed so far sounds terrific, and these are some of the best songs I've ever written," he says. "I promise it will be worth the wait!"
[For more about the album, see the last two paragraphs below.]
Christopher's CD Single!
Christopher's most recent release Your Age
is None of Your Business/What Do You Believe? is available
on CD and via download! The two new songs were recorded during
sessions for his forthcoming album "Piece of the Puzzle,"
due sometime in 2009.
In the tradition of songwriter/artists such as Paul Simon, the new songs feature bold arrangements -- a horn section, hot piano playing and wailing sax on Your Age is None of Your Business, and synths and electric lead guitar on What Do You Believe? And, as always, Christopher's lyrics will make you laugh and get you thinking.
"Your Age is None of Your Business was something I said one day in response to someone's complaint about getting older," Chris explains. "My comment got a big laugh, and eventually it occurred to me it could make a great song concept. It took a while to work out the lyrics for the verses and bridge, but I think the result is worth it.
"The music is about as joyful as I've ever written, and why not?" he continues. "The song is all about affirming your life and vitality -- no matter what. As far as the big arrangement, the instrumental hook that follows the chorus came to me as I was writing the music, and I heard it in my head being played by a horn section from the outset. Someone suggested boogie-woogie piano, and that felt right, too. As soon as we brought JT (John Thompson) into the studio to play the piano, he was 'answering' the horn riffs, which worked great. Finally, I decided to go for broke by adding some wailing alto sax played by the amazing Steve Bowman. We ended up creating a recording that gets people to jump up and dance, but still has real heart. I've had great reactions from almost everyone who's heard it."
[To hear an excerpt from Your Age is None of Your Business, click here.]
"What Do You Believe is a story about a chance encounter with a man speaking to a group of passersby in the city," Chris says. "He's asking the crowd to look carefully at what they believe to be true, pointing out that those beliefs will shape their lives. The verses consist of 'laundry lists' of commonly held beliefs that people often accept without even realizing it...'Do you believe that you're a victim? Do you believe that money is evil, although you hate being poor? Do you believe you can't afford to share because there might not be enough?' By the end of the song, the list gets into war, revenge and religion, so it's a pretty intense song.
"I'm not trying to attack people for holding the kind of beliefs listed in the song," he continues. "I've held many of them myself at different times. What I am trying to do is get us to think more closely about our beliefs, because we tend to accept them as fact. In my experience, everything we accept as fact eventually turns out to be at least partly wrong, whether we accept it without thinking or believe in it passionately. In the meantime, those unquestioned 'facts' have a powerful effect on our happiness, the way we treat others, and the choices we make."
[To hear an excerpt from What Do You Believe, click here.]
Chris is now in the studio working on the 12-song album Piece of the Puzzle that will follow the single in 2008. "The songs from the single will not be on the album," he says. "Instead, we're working on 12 different songs that all convey hope for the future, which I fear may be in short supply in the next few years. Our civilization is facing the biggest challenges we've ever faced. Obviously I can't save the world, but I can at least try to help out by reminding people that our civilization is worth saving, and that there's good reason to believe we will solve the problems facing us." Chris says the album will be part of a unique multi-media release; more about that when the project is closer to completion, hopefully next summer.
To read the lyrics of the new songs, or purchase downloads or the CD, click on the links to the left!