Chris Blevins: Looking at 2020
Henryetta, Oklahoma singer/songwriter, Chris Blevins, is looking forward to 2020, and it looks exciting. The man who holds down the regular Monday night gig at Tulsa’s famous Mercury Lounge is preparing three record releases in the new year and getting ready for the birth of his first child.
Since quitting his day job at the post office in 2016, Chris has been working as a full-time musician. He released his first album, Better Than Alone, on Tulsa’s Horton Records label in 2017. Since finding out he and wife Sarah are expecting their first child in May, he has buckled down and picked up another job to help save up for the big event.
Of the three releases expected in 2020, Blevins says one record is already done and should be out soon. The self-titled project will feature “story songs like you’re used to and a lot more personal stuff.” It will feature a full band, including Isaac Stalling on guitar, Andrew Bair on keys, and Gabe Pearson (from Turnpike Troubadours) and Tom Young (from Damn Quails) on drums.
Chris describes the second upcoming release as “an almost entirely acoustic project about loss and remembrance, titled Grief. The songs are mostly duets, and the arrangements will feature fiddle and bowed bass with some keyboards.”
For Monday night’s Chris Blevins shows at the Mercury Lounge, his powerful voice and guitar are backed with a full band. The set list features a lot of songs from the Better Than Alone album, but done with a little more rock ‘n’ roll attitude. Plus, some older blues and honky-tonk covers and songs Blevins is still in the process of writing. The third release coming in 2020 was recorded live during those Monday nights at the Merc. Blevins says the players will feature Tulsa pedal steel ace, Roger Ray, and maybe an appearance from keyboard player John Fullbright (who also appeared on Blevins’s debut record).
Most Chris Blevins’s songs will tell a story about someone or something, and that’s the way he likes it: “I’ve always preferred story songs. I like characters. That’s kind of the way I write. I just kind of muster a bunch of characters in my head and give ‘em little jobs and spend a day in their life and write down whatever happens to ‘em.”
2020 will be a year to follow the story of Chris Blevins. There will be a lot going on; it will be a year filled with great new music… and the laughter of a new baby.
Chris Blevins:
facebook.com/ChristophBlevins/
Chris Blevins: Better Than Alone
hortonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/chris-blevins-better-than-alone
