Chris Porter has been a fixture in the Southeastern music scene for over a decade, fronting bands like Some Dark Holler and The Back Row Baptists, performing tunes that often tell dark and desperate stories of real american life. Join us as Porter graces our stage with special guests Johann Greco and Kristen Englenz.
$7 Adv – $10 Door
Doors @ 7 PM
Chris Porter spent his formative years in the music business sharing the songwriting and lead vocal duties in his previous projects, The Back Row Baptists and Some Dark Holler. Upon making the decision to leave the comfort of shared pressure, it took Porter over a year to conceptualize, write, and record his debut solo release, This Red Mountain (TRM). He considers it to be the most sincere work of his career and every aspect of its creation reflects this sentiment. Weaving in and out of lives filled with heartbreak, loss, redemption and joy, the songs of This Red Mountain reveal the story of a man’s lowest lows and the difficult journey back to peace and perspective, living his life on his terms. “I reckon that guy is a lot like me,” says Porter.
Chris Porter Official Site
Chris Porter on Facebook
Chris Porter on iTunes
Johann Greco is a singer/songwriter and musician of 20 years. He hails from Northeast Georgia and brings his brand of genre-bending musicology into everything he does on the stage and in the studio.
Born in the north, raised in the south. Soothed as a child by Simply Red and Gordon Lightfoot and excited by The Doors and Hendrix. Cut his teeth on Nirvana, STP and G & R, honed his chops to Cream and Zeppelin. Got laid to Marcy Playground and Cypress Hill. Toked up to Sublime and wound down to CSNY. Earned his dues rocking the honky-tonks and chicken wire bars of the real dirty south. Led people to beautiful secret places as a Music Minister and beckoned them into the dens of sex and sin with wailing voices and screaming guitars.
The story goes that Kristen Englenz learned to read musical notes before she was able to read words, demonstrating her natural aptitude for music. Later, she went on to play piano, guitar, and French horn, and was awarded a scholarship to study music performance at the University of North Carolina Asheville. She has such a natural gift for melody and mimicry that she can summon birds to respond back to her voice. (She once even won an international bird-calling contest in 2009). Today, she is making her name as a performing singer, songwriter, and musician in the Southeast. Her soulful singing has a range and depth of feeling that has led many to compare her to vocal greats Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell. Kristen’s deeply felt songs carry layers of meaning, which peeled back, reveal a vulnerability and passion for emotional expression.
Kristen’s new album, The Extent of Play, recorded at studilaroche by Atlanta sound engineer Benjamin Price (Little Tybee, Hello Ocho, Faun and a Pan Flute) features her breathy voice and finger-picked guitar in a stripped down, live-to-tape setting. Tracks on the album are spun together with carefully layered lyrics that reflect the human condition and makes one feel what most people are too hesitant to openly express. Kristen’s sound is enhanced but not overpowered by the ethereal notes coming from guest musicians George Kotler-Wallace’s (Book of Colors) pedal steel, and subtle support from Ryan Donald’s (Little Tybee) bass.
“The Extent of Play has a genuinely appealing quality absent from nearly every other local release in this genre,” writes Jeff Clark of Stomp And Stammer. “There is a stirring intimacy to these performances that holds you in their grasp.”
Kristen Englenz Official Site
Kristen Englenz on Facebook
Kristen Englenz on Bandcamp