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Caltech

Chris Proctor

Saturday, January 21, 2006
8:00pm to 10:00pm
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Chris has performed here quite a few times, so many of you already know what a special performer he is. Those who have not heard him, or who may not think of yourselves as guitar music aficionados, will be amazed at the feeling and precision that he brings to his music. His influences include traditional American folk, Celtic, blues and classical, but his style is all his own.

Attending a Chris Proctor concert is a bit like watching a magician, as you can't help wonder how he made this sound, or managed that counterpoint with just one guitar and two hands. But his music is not a showy display of razzle-dazzle and fireworks. Chris commands the listener's attention with nuances and textures that take one to a completely different place.

Chris injects a good deal of variety in his mostly self-composed tunes. The Washington Post wrote, "Proctor is...writing challenging compositions and playing them with such precision and clarity that they seem to sparkle..." He also includes some familiar songs, such as an Irish hornpipe or a Beatles song. Even these songs become completely Chris's, for example, when he manages even more tension and drama than the original recording of Neil Young's "Ohio", the raw, angry, call to alarm that Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young recorded just after the Kent State campus shootings by the National Guard in 1970. His version of the Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" has a simple beauty that gives the song a whole new life.

Between songs, Chris is very articulate, setting up each song by telling a bit about its background or describing a related occurrence. Chris once likened himself to a bus driver, or tour guide, who takes people to a variety of points of interest, tells them a little bit about each place, then lets the travelers experience them on their own. At a Chris Proctor show, the scenery is grand indeed, and Chris is good company.

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Presented By:Caltech Folk Music Society
For more information, please phone (626) 395-4652 or email [email protected].
$15 adults; $5 students