Cory Chisel and the Wondering Sons Live at Summit City! in Whitesburg

Cory Chisel and the Wondering Sons Live at Summit City!

22 Oct 2012 - 7:30 PM

The Rock Show with Greg presents ” A evening with Cory Chisel and The Wondering Sons” with special guests Kris Logsdon and Wayne Graham band on October 22nd at 7:30 pm est at The Summit City in Whitesburg,Kentucky! Do not miss your chance to see one of America’s rising stars in Americania/Rock N Roll!

“The Man in Black’s gritty heartland pride informs “Old Believers” Mr. Chisel’s second album— and a hit of god-fearing transcendence slips seamlessly into the beautifully heartbroken ballads.”
-New York Times

“Next week he’ll release the marvelous Old Believers…Every song felt like a confession or a prayer, every note honest and untainted”
-Nylon Magazine

“I’ve Been Accused, Old Believers- Recorded in a Nashville studio called Welcome To 1979, this sweaty slow jam sounds just like, um, 1979. That’s a good thing. Really good.”
-Esquire

“Inspired by the rawness of George Harrison and Elvis Costello…soulful…meticulous.”
- Rolling Stone

Cory Chisel is an old believer. You can hear it in his music – there’s a wisdom beyond his years in that voice. You can see it in his story – the son of a preacher, sheltered from pop music, raised on hymns and Johnny Cash. “Mom played piano and organ, my dad did the preaching, the thing that my sister and I could add to the service was to sing.” As fate would have it, the kid was born to do it.

He grew up in the Iron Range town of Babbitt, Minnesota, and the rural flatlands of Appleton, Wisconsin. Along with the family’s spiritual doctrine, came a musician uncle, who taught Cory about the blues: Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson.

This musical education put young Cory on a path that was well worn by the greats who came before him and influenced him: people like Cash, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Sam Cooke, and Otis Redding. For Cory, songwriting is a by-product of existing. We all talk to ourselves. Cory does so with a melody. Those internal conversations are the seeds, the building blocks of his songs. “Where a painter, in order to express himself, would reach for a canvas and paints, I go to the guitar and try to build it out. Or sometimes songs just come fully-formed, usually, if I’m really sleep-deprived and driving for whatever reason, it’s like a radio station that my brain picks up.”

“Old Believers” is the second LP from Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons. The record, in Cory’s words, is about rebuilding, and there’s a directness that comes through in the songwriting. “Life is a series of creating things, living with the inevitable destruction of those things, and then finding within yourself the ability to create again.”

There’s brutal honesty in the soulful rock of “I’ve Been Accused.” The song suggests that sometimes with personal growth comes unhappiness, but ultimately you’ve got to step up. No pain, no gain. “Never Meant To Love You” is timeless, like something straight out of “The Great American Songbook.” It’s a story of unexpected love, plainly and elegantly told. For “Please Tell Me,” Cory says, “I went to my guitar instead of going to a phone and sent the message that way.” “Seventeen” deals beautifully with the simple truth of realizing that a certain portion of your life has passed.

The album was recorded in Nashville and produced by a great singer-songwriter in his own right, Brendan Benson (The Raconteurs). The two met while making Cory’s first album. They sat down to write a song together, and quickly found they were kindred spirits. “We had such a common language in the way we attacked music-making. Brendan is really great at bringing direction and bringing something out of me that is almost indescribable. He’s also the guy who can get behind the boards and pull it off.”

What Benson pulls off is an album of rich, authentic, rock-and-roll, drawing a straight line between the gospel and blues of Cory’s youth, and classic rock. He’s able to find the right space and color for each song, whether it’s the dangerous and dark mood of “Foxgloves,” the bright Brill Building meets Graham Nash vibe of “Laura,” or the straight-up traditional rollin’ and tumblin’ blues of “Over Jordan.”

Categories: Concerts & Tour Dates