Chris Castle | Falmouth Records

BIO & REVIEWS

"A tunesmith of almost scary vision, narrative acumen and hooky instinct... writing songs is utterly programmed into his DNA"

- Rick Koster, The New London (CT) Day

"A rising Americana stand-out (his songs are) packed full of imagery and interesting chord progressions, all layered over some close harmonies and rhythms that are sometimes textbook country and sometimes a little more funky.”

- Folk Alley

"Hollow Bones in Monotone was the best Folk album of 2007. The Drenched Earth Tour was one of the greatest musical experiences of my life."

- Shawn Henderson (106.1 fm WSCA)

"His songs are so well-written, they never seem sparse, despite their minimal production."

- The Cleveland Free Times

"A broken 'cotton leather pouch bucket guitarist' — that’s folk for genius."

- The Erie Wire

"Chris Castle sings his unique songs of depth and beauty with a voice well textured by life's experiences."

- Tommy Ramone (The Ramones)

"The Ohio Troubadour writes and sings in a style that combines elements of rock, country and folk with a literary slant that recalls the best work of Eric Brace, Peter Cooper and Buddy Miller."

- No Depression

BIOGRAPHY

I was born to coal miners turned concrete slingers, who migrated to Ohio from eastern Kentucky to build a better life. Raised in a trailer park on Pentecostal hymns and Hank Williams, I started singing in bars when I was eight and signed my first Nashville publishing deal at fourteen. Music was my first love and there was never any question that I'd spend my life chasing that muse.

I've been blessed to perform with some amazing acts, making my way across the continental US and meeting the kind of people that only a touring artist meets; senators, gold-toothed pimps, and everything in between. Most of the albums I've released since 2000 were self-recorded, with the few exceptions being my 2007 release (tracked at OMNIsound in Nashville) and a couple tracked at Levon Helm Studios (Woodstock, NY). I scored a top 10 album in 2012 with a record called "Last Bird Home". It featured cameos by Garth Hudson (the Band), Tommy Ramone (the Ramones), Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan, Levon Helm), the Womacks and more.

Taking a few years away from music in 2014, I was elected to city council in Norwalk, Ohio where I also worked as an economic developer. That wasn't much of a stretch when you consider the similarities in building albums and building communities. They require the same skillset. Eventually though, I'd feel the lure of that old muse again - and I started recording new material in 2019.

These days I'm focusing my energies on writing and recording, playing fewer shows and rethinking what it means to be an old school song-builder in the year 3000. Technology has devalued music to the point that it takes 330 song streams to make $1. But it's also given us the tools to reach a broader audience without compromising artistic vision. I've been painting again, and have started incorporating my original art and design into everything from the website to social media, t-shirts, paperback books and digital singles. It's a great time to be alive and making indie music. Even for a dinosaur like me, who's been doing it for more than three decades.