His Story.....or His Song
Chris Beardsley is originally from Bristol, Connecticut (home of ESPN). The first time music grabbed his attention was when John Lennon was shot and killed. From that moment on, the momentum of absorbing as much music as he could still continues to this day. He learned to play guitar and harmonica pretty much on his own.
Chris' solo CD, "Simple Life", was created in 2002 and contains many songs that are crowd favorites. His songwriting is very profound but still able to be rather simple, a hard thing to create. At some gigs, Chris is able to play his own music and covers which compliment each other very well. He also plays "original only" sets. He has played on a regular basis at The Bitter End in New York City prior to moving to Nashville in 2005. He has also opened for The Radiators at the legendary Toad's Place in New Haven, Connecticut as well as quite a bit solo shows there. And, of course, he has had the opportunity to play The Bluebird Cafe right here in Nashville on Mondays during their open mic night.
Chris was a founding member and main singer/songwriter in the regional band The Village. The Village played gigs from Maine to Florida with Chris doing all the booking and promoting for these shows. The band lasted from 1991 to 1997 in which time they relaesed two full-length CD's and a four song EP. The crowds, whether die-hard fans or just hearing their music for the first time, were hooked on the originals. This holds true with Chris' solo career as well.
Discography:
"Lost in the Shuffle" (CD) 1993
"Earth One" (EP) 1994
"Rock and Roll Messiah" (CD) 1995
"Simple Life" (CD) 2002
Bands that have influenced Chris the most are The Beatles, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Kinks, The Band, Pink Floyd and The Doors. Equally as strong an influence in Chris' style of writing music and lyrics are U2, The Butterfield Blues Band, The Who, Bob Marley, The Grateful Dead, The Byrds and CSN.
Those great folk songwriters who capture Chris' attention are Tim Buckley, Phil Ochs, Tom Waits, Townes VanZandt, Fred Neil, Mississippi John Hurt and Greg Brown.
Chris says it is the lyrics that drive his compositions. He creates music to accompany the words which come first. "I need the lyrics to set the tone of what the music is going to be."
Chris has also had Wild Bill, a song from his "Simple Life" CD, featured in a documentary, "Spaceman in Cuba", by Brett Rapkin. This documentary followed former Red Sox pitcher, Bill Lee, on his trips to Cuba just to play baseball. Here is a link to the documentary: http://spacemanincuba.com/.
Chris continues to write songs, as he probably will for the rest of his life, so come back often and new songs will be added for your listening enjoyment.