From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American songwriter (born 1957)
Musical artist
Chris Beard
(born August 29, 1957)
[3]
is an American
electric blues
singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He has released five
albums
to date, the first of which was nominated for a
Blues Music Award
. He is dubbed 'Prince of the Blues'.
[1]
Life and career
[
edit
]
Beard was born in
Rochester, New York
, United States, the son of Joe Beard, a local blues musician.
[3]
Inspired by
Buddy Guy
and
Matt Murphy
, Beard quickly graduated from learning to play the guitar to performing with a local
rhythm and blues
group by his mid-teens. He played alongside his father before forming his own group after his graduation.
[1]
Beard played in the blues
clubs
around his home state for almost twenty years.
[3]
Beard's debut album was
Barwalkin'
, issued by
JSP
in June 1997.
Produced
by
Johnny Rawls
, it garnered Beard a nomination for a
Blues Music Award
for 'Best New Blues Artist'.
[1]
[4]
In 1999,
Blues Beat
magazine gave Beard the Muddy Waters Award as the 'New Talent of the Year'.
[3]
A further album,
Born to Play the Blues
, followed in April 2001, and then
Live Wire
(2005). Referring to the latter, the
Allmusic
journalist, Chris Nickson, stated "Beard cements his stature with this record, and sets himself up to take a place among the contemporary blues guitar greats.
[5]
Beard has appeared at the
Boundary Waters Blues Festival
.
In August 2010, Beard released
Who I Am and What I Do
on Electro Glide Records. The album contained three tracks Beard co-wrote with
Ronnie Baker Brooks
.
[2]
[4]
Discography
[
edit
]
Year
|
Title
|
Record label
|
1997
|
Barwalkin'
|
JSP
|
2001
|
Born to Play the Blues
|
JSP
|
2005
|
Live Wire
|
NorthernBlues
|
2010
|
Who I Am and What I Do
|
Electro Glide
|
2015
|
Eye of the Witch
|
Destin Records
|
[4]
[6]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]