Chris Whitley, RIP
- filed under Music
Guitarist Chris Whitley died three years ago today of lung cancer. He was 45.
He did not sell many albums during his lifetime and, while prolific, didn’t give the public much to hang on to. He was always searching; just when you thought you could categorize him, he would shift his focus: an album of acoustic country blues, followed by electric rock, and later by an album that featured turntables, electronic synths and dance beats. It would be hard to like all of it — but impossible not to fall deeply in love with at least some of it.
Living with the Law and Dirt Floor are my favorite Whitley albums. Living with the Law benefits from producer Daniel Lanois’s rich atmospherics; Dirt Floor strips those away and gives us Whitley unadorned and alone.
Big Sky Country
Scrapyard Lullaby
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We saw Whitley at Jammin’ Java in DC just before he passed. As a friend of mine who was at the show said testifying to his unique talent, “There will never be a Chris Whitley cover band.”
a true genius was chris whitley.
the blues coursing through his veins.
i’ll never forget watching him play guitar and channel the hell hounds.
do yourself a favor and listen to the song “loco girl” on dirt floor.
“I found my loco girl
All still, no word for where she’d been
I sense the memories on her skin
Like broken glass had broke her in
And I, in exile, recognize a friend
These chains grow stronger every year
Will she defect or disappear
This world can hold her in sway
Maybe she’ll take me there someday
When I find my loco girl again
When I find my loco girl again
When I find my loco girl again ”
pure, unadulterated beauty.