WELCOME to christopherkent.com!
Christopher posts new creations here every month, including music, original articles, poems and music videos! (His music tracks are also available everywhere across the Web, although you can usually download them here for free.) If you’re visiting this site for the first time, you’ll find a collection of Fan Favorite releases further down this page!
Chris has been creating a series of concept albums; he’s currently releasing tracks from album #7, The Heart Chronicles (see below). (You can check out tracks from his previous six albums—four of which are available on CD—by clicking on the album icons to the left!) Chris has also nearly completed an all-original Christmas album; look for a new track from that project this December! Meanwhile, Chris is releasing occasional singles that will appear on other future albums.
Please stop by every month to see and hear what’s new—and if you like what you find, please share it with your friends!
This month I’m celebrating the return of the Philadelphia Folk Festival!
After two years of having to be online-only (courtesy of COVID), the Philadelphia Folk Festival is returning to the Old Poole Farm in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, this summer from August 18 to the 21st! As a 50-year Festival veteran, I’m honoring this auspicious occasion by rereleasing a song I wrote a few years ago in honor of the Festival, titled Moonbeam Boogie! It celebrates being on the hillside in front of the main stage on a beautiful evening under the stars with good friends (and thousands of other happy folks) listening to music and singing and dancing!
When I decided to produce Moonbeam Boogie, I wanted to mimic one of my favorite Folk Festival experiences: jamming with other musicians in the campground late at night, sitting around a fire. Unfortunately, capturing a decent live recording of one of those jams was next to impossible, so I decided to recreate it in the recording studio, using two acoustic guitars, a stand-up bass, a conga drum, an accordion and a mandolin. (The only part that was actually recorded in the campground is the reaction from the crowd at the end!)
If you’re a fan of the Festival, I hope this song will make you feel like you’re there!
PS: Below, you’ll also find a link to my Folk Festival memoir, Best of the Fest: Memories from a Lifetime of Philadelphia Folk Festivals, in which I share my favorite moments from 50 years of being there. It comes complete with pictures! Enjoy!
To read the lyrics to Moon beam Boogie, click here!
To read Best of the Fest: Memories from a Lifetime of Philadelphia Folk Festivals, click here!
The Heart Chronicles uses songs to tell a chronological story about a young man’s experiences as he discovers that falling in love is awesome — but staying in love takes a lot of work.
Creating something like this has been on my mind since my earliest days as a songwriter; in fact, I performed a one-man show along these lines in New York City in my 20s. (I have no doubt that Joni Mitchell’s album Court and Spark — a masterpiece that uses brilliant, insightful songs to tell the story of a failed love affair — motivated me to attempt it.) In those days, I wasn’t in a position to record an album, so after doing my one-man show I set aside the idea. But I always knew I’d come back to it. Today, with many more songs in my repertoire about the challenges of being in a relationship, I can assemble a pretty compelling story.
Below, you’ll find the songs I’ve already released as part of this project. Only a few songs remain, and they’ll be released in the upcoming months!
Act One: Falling
• It’s Just Been a Long Time
• This Crazy Love
• I Don’t Need Reasons for Loving You
• Sweet Love in the Morning
Act Two: Failing
• Pointing the Finger
• Honest Anger
• Taking Control
• I Thought I’d Found You
• Turning Away
• For the Quiet Morning Hours (coming in September)
Act Three: Fulfilling
• This Baby Might Fly
• Humdinger (coming soon)
• How to Disagree
• You Are the One (new version! Coming soon)
• At the True Love Store
Epilogue
• Ain’t Love Grand (coming soon)
• Just An Old Love Song
Click to hear the songs!
You Are the One
Click to read (or listen to) the poems!
