Biography Chris Vallillo

1 biography

1.1 life- college
1.2 1980- 1990
1.3 1990- 2000
1.4 2000- present

biography
early life- college

chris vallillo born in hammond, indiana on august 3, 1954. father civil engineer , transitory nature of profession meant vallillo family moved around every couple of years. in addition hammond, vallillo lived in pittsburgh, pennsylvania - flint, michigan – hamilton, ohio - newcastle, pennsylvania - buffalo, new york , rochester, new york. earliest musical memory of seeing singing cowboys on tv, engendered yearning own , play guitar. aged ten, parents presented him old archtop kay guitar. went on take lessons around 6 months. family living near detroit @ time, , vallillo recalls hearing lot of motown music, plus era of beatles u.s. invasion , end of folk music boom. mississippi john hurt, john fahey, beatles , whole range of singer songwriters inspired vallillo s musical interest.

in college, vallillo met folk musician, banjo player, steve elliott, , later formed bluegrass band, granite mountain sluice box boys – named after local landmark – , played college venues , parties. prescott closed during vallillo s third year, , completed degree course @ beloit college in wisconsin. next 3 years went on work western illinois university in macomb archaeologist. in macomb, vallillo became acquainted members of country rock band poker flatts becoming sound man, , later joined carthage, illinois country rock band bear creek full-time member. during late-seventies, onset of twilight years country-rock vallillo began writing songs , focusing more on music archaeology. when ken carlysle invited vallillo join band cadillac cowboys, walked away , never looked back. spent next 5 years guitarist , vocalist performing on 300 nights year throughout midwest occasional gigs in new york city , in key west, florida.

1980- 1990

in 1980 band released album live @ black stallion. band had 4 songwriters– vallillo , ron kimbrow, ken carlysle , lonnie ratliff – , went on release string of 45 rpm singles. pedal steel player marty muse, has been based in austin many years, band member during eighties. vallillo left band in late 1983 , began working soloist. in days solo act, vallillo performed songs writers such guy clark, townes van zandt, gram parsons , jerry jeff walker, gradually brought own compositions sets, particularly after making transition folk venues. in 1985 vallillo kerrville folk festival, new folk finalist. song goodbye independent trucker included in documentary bushnell, small illinois town isntrumentalinstrumental western illinois rag.

in 1987 vallillo released first recording of original music, western illinois rag. recording sessions took place in experimental music studio @ university of illinois @ champaign, home of first electronic music in 60’s. support players included, fifteen-year-old fiddle player, alison krauss , members of original union station (there plans reissue recording on cd). following year vallillo served director of “the schuyler arts folk music collecting project” illinois arts council , schuyler arts council, carried out in conjunction library of congress folklife centre. interviewed , recorded oral histories , performances last of pre-radio generation in western illinois. collection accepted library of congress folklife archives in 1988. prove influential in future work both musician , songwriter.

1990- 2000

in 1990, vallillo invited become performing host , co-producer of became award-winning syndicated radio program “rural route 3”. “live” musical performance show recorded studio audience, featured of finest names in acoustic , singer-songwriter music. vallillo hosted , performed on each program along 2 musical guests. show ran 7 years, , featured such luminaries bob gibson, john hartford, alison krause , union station, john gorka, tom russel, tish hinojosa, austin lounge lizards, norman , nancy blake, john mckuen , trout fishing in america... among others. @ peak, show heard on over 60 stations boston puerto rica , alaska. remained on airwaves till 1998, , in 1995 program gained national federation of community broadcaster s bronze reel award. in final season, national federation of community broadcaster s awarded rural route 3 special merit award.

during time, vallillo composed, performed , recorded soundtrack music 13-part tv series “illinois historic panorama” [1992/93]. went on pen theme song , soundtrack music 22-part tv series “the civil war , reconstruction” [1993/94] , continued perform , tour full-time.

2000- present

during years of 2000 vallillo continued perform throughout midwest. in 2001, again tapped illinois arts council conduct fieldwork illinois mississippi river valley project, documenting work of artists along section of mississippi river passes through state. in 2003, produced , hosted illinois mississippi river valley project festival featuring performers documented in first phase of project.

in 2006, vallillo host , perform on chicago public television s arts across illinois centerstage, live! during year took on first of 2 tours illinois state scholar smithsonian institution s traveling exhibition on roots music, new harmonies.

throughout entire time, vallillo continued perform , record full-time. first project, “the western illinois rag” followed in 1990 recording “the putnam museum concerts”. recording created series of concerts given vallillo in davenport, iowa , focused on material documented in first collecting project. in 1995 vallillo teamed grammy winning producer rich adler , traveled nashville in between taping sessions “rural route 3” work on new, original music project. result 1995 release “best of possible worlds” featured of finest acoustic players in nashville; folks roy huskey jr. on bass, kenny malone on drums, rob ikes on dobro, david schnaufer on dulcimer , andrea zahn on violin. “best of possible worlds” received , generated airplay across , europe.

in 2001, family tragedy led vallillo return rural roots record aural traditions [2001]. marked strong move bottleneck slide style of playing , featured music written , played between 1860s , 1930s folks stephen foster, carter family , jimmie rogers. mark first of ongoing series of self-produced recordings follow. vallillo cut tracks in home studio, mixed project @ first bass audio in macomb, il.

his 2005 release dance,” represented return original , contemporary singer-songwriter material. “aural traditions”, “the dance” recorded in studio 13, home recording studio, first time, project mixed there well. contains 7 original tunes plus songs john gorka, garnet rogers, greg brown, joel mabus , stephen foster , released in summer of 2005.

immediately following 2005 release of dance, vallillo began researching, writing , performing one-man show on life of abraham lincoln. resulting project, “abraham lincoln in song” go on receive endorsement of abraham lincoln bicentennial commission , result in recording of music show go on chart @ #10 on billboard bluegrass album charts in march 2008 , receive excellent critical review.

vallillo performed show @ hundreds of venues across country abraham lincoln , gerald r. ford presidential museums krannert center performing arts, ravinia festival, gettysburg national battlefield museum , president lincoln’s cottage (lincoln’s summer white house).

following success of lincoln show, vallillo turned towards new project. many reviews had complimented bottleneck slide work , expressed desire hear more of it. in mind, vallillo began write , record follow recording,”the last day of winter”.

this recording feature 9 instrumentals , 4 original songs recorded on vallillo s extensive collection of vintage instruments including 1924 gibson tenor lute, 1936 wood bodied dobro, 1929 national triolian (the oldest known exist according national guitars) , custom made reproduction of turn of century lyon , healy 9 string parlor guitar.