The Adobe Flash Player is required to watch videos on this page

Chris Pureka

Quick Links
About the Artist
Music
Achievements
Press Coverage
Stage Specs
Return to Chris Pureka's profile

At-a-Glance
One-Sheet

Hometown	New Canaan, CT
Genres
Band Members	Chris Pureka (and sometimes: Merrill Garbus, Lyndell ... » more
Achievements	» more
Upcoming Shows	None

Contact Information:	Manager Christen Greene Christen@Fauxpasproductions.com 413.695.6986 Booking Christen Greene Christen@Fauxpasproductions.com 413.695.6986 Publicist Cara Wodnicki, Press Here Cara@PressHere.com 212.246.2640 Artist / Band Member Chris Pureka Chris@ChrisPureka.com 203.550.1866
# Years Experience Performing Live:	8
# Live Perfomances Past Six-months:	60
Market Draw:	Home Market: 251-300; New York City: 301-350; Boston, MA: 201-250; Philadelphia, PA: 151-200; Washington, DC: 201-250; Chapel Hil: 151-200; Asheville, NC: 76-100; Atlanta, GA: 101-150; Nashville, TN: 51-75; Ann Arbor, MI: 151-200; Chicago, IL: 201-250; Milwaukee, WI: 101-150; Madison, WI: 151-200; Minneapolis, MN: 101-150; Denver/Boulder, CO: 201-250; Seattle, WA: 251-300; Portland, OR: 251-300; Eugene, OR: 151-200; San Francisco, CA: 301-350; Los Angeles, CA: 151-200; London, England: 101-150; Paris, France: 51-75; Berlin, Germany: 76-100
Venue History:	The Independent - San Francisco, CA Middle East - Boston, MA Music Hall of Williamsburg - New York, NY Southpaw - Brooklyn, NY Mercury Lounge - New York, NY Iota - Arlington, VA The 930 Club - Washington DC, DC The Highline Ballroom - New York, NY Club Passim - Cambridge, MA The Iron Horse Music Hall - Northampton, MA Johnny Brendas - Philadelphia, PA The Ark - Ann Arbor, MI SPACE - Evanston, IL Daytrotter - Rock Island, IL Tractor Tavern - Seatttle, WA Wild Buffalo - Bellingham, WA The Doug Fir - Portland, OR Mississippi Studios - Portland, OR Bender's - Denver, CO Chatauqua - Boulder, CO Local 506 - Chapel Hill, NC Spaceland - Los Angeles, CA Hotel Cafe - Los Angeles, CA Slim's - San Francisco, CA The Catalyst - Santa Cruz, CA The Crocodile - Seattle, WA High Noon Saloon - Madison, WI
Opener Experience:	Ani Difranco; Dar Williams; Cowboy Junkies; Martin Sexton; Peasant; Jay Brannan; Peter Mulvey; Joshua Radin; Or, The Whale
Similar Artists:	Gregory Alan Isakov; Elvis Perkins; Patty Griffin; Josh Ritter; Mary Gauthier
Performing Rights Society:	ASCAP
Discography:	How I Learned to See in the Dark LP—2010; Chimera EP—2009; Dryland LP—2006; Driving North LP—2004

Expand All Expand All

Expand

About the Artist

“An interviewer asked Chris Pureka to sum up her music as a haiku. I will: Folky sorrowful songs of loneliness and hurt, longing to reunite. Her tunes have the grave Appalachian flavor of Neil Young and Gillian Welch; her guitar playing is subdued but quietly virtuosic. And her voice can be a desolate whisper or a bitter accusation. There’s no comfort, for her, in the clarity of her observations.” – John Pareles, THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Introspective and deep, the landscape is akin to Neil Young's Harvest” –The AllMusic Guide

“For a woman who frequently performs solo and whose compositions are more quiet than clanging, Chris Pureka is making a lot of noise.” –Billboard Magazine

Chris Pureka is a breath of fresh air in an age of fleeting success and temporary notions. She is an artist of substance, armed with a sharp eye for oft-missed details and an emotional intelligence that can switch from withering to compelling with a subtle inflection. On her third release, How I Learned To See In The Dark set to hit via Sad Rabbit Music /ADA on April 13, Pureka expands on her distinct and beautiful melodies exploring broader musical soundscapes all the while maintaining the stunning vocals and distinct guitar work she is known for.
With her 2004 debut LP, Driving North, Pureka started a career as a touring troubadour and began building an impressive fan base from the ground up: a cult following that started in her native New England and steadily grew to a national level. Fans and critics alike were drawn to the signature voice that somehow makes heartbreak sound desirable and her acute attention to lyrical detail, while others lauded her aptitude for crafting guitar parts that speak for themselves. The Boston Globe raved that "[she] is such a gifted guitar player and singer that you have to listen to each song twice, once for her guitar playing and again for her passionate lyrics about love, loss and hope." With her 2006 follow-up, Dryland, Pureka further expanded on the emotional topography she charted earlier in her career by continuing to tour extensively playing 200+ shows a year and gathering supporters city by city, show by show and fan by fan. This year Chris will take touring to the next level by adding a full backing band to her incredible live show.
While maintaining the unique alchemy of longing, loss and hope this virtuoso sets to music, there is a sonic adventurism on How I Learned to See in the Dark that marks a new stage in Pureka’s musical evolution. This is aided by Pureka’s choice of co-producer and longtime friend, Merrill Garbus (4Ad’s tUnE-YaRds). In addition to enjoying the comfort that comes with working with someone you’ve known since middle school, Garbus brought to the table her signature quirky recording techniques and alternative instrumentation, helping Pureka shift her sound into as-yet uncharted territory. This record boasts a newfound edginess, coupled with a more abstract sound and a musical depth and complexity that shines through each track, all the while maintaining the space and creative instrumentation Pureka is known for.
Standout track, “Landlocked”, showcases Pureka’s technical prowess with the finger-picking style that won her so many accolades on Dryland while “Broken Clock” is the rhythm driven, heavy hitter bound to be on your next break up mix. “Wrecking Ball” mixes a playful quirkiness in production with an underlying paced anger, laced with twangs of percussive guitar. Album closer, “August 28th” is the deep breath following the emotional tumult that precedes it – a return to quiet contemplation for the writer and the listener: “I think the whole world needs a shoeshine/I think we’re all living proof.”
It has taken years for Chris Pureka to arrive here, and each step has been as purposeful, as precise, and as unwavering as the music she makes.

Expand

Music

Expand

Achievements

Needle In The Haystack

Virgin Festival Showcase

EJ Interview

Expand

Press Coverage

Northeast Performer Cover/Feature Oct. 2006 by Performer Magazine
Autumn is a transitional time, a vivid trip towards the end of the year that brings people from all points in all areas of the globe to the Northeast region. These travelers coast up and down otherwise nondescript highways simply to see the colorful byproduct of the changing seasons. Singer-songwriter Chris Pureka understands. “Fall is my favorite season,” she states from under the frayed brim of her Camel baseball cap, and cracks a smile that makes it seem like she just got a little happier simply thinking about it. This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with her work. Her previous release, 2004’s Driving North, was a crispy-aired collection of songs that sounded like they could come from no place else than Pureka’s native New England. Similar to other wonders of local nature, Pureka herself could seemingly come from no place else. She grew up in Connecticut, where she became interested in music in her teens, after being “really into sports.” She studied biology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, a Connecticut town where classical music blasts from the tops of its stately Main Street buildings at midnight. It was in college that Pureka began to find her voice as a performer, although maybe not a singer straight off. “At first, I didn’t really focus on the vocals; there were two instrumental tracks on that record,” she explains, referring to her initial demo EP, which she recorded in June 2001 via a guerilla “lock-the-bedroom-door” recording session. She has experienced a great amount of evolution as an artist in the past five years, but the base remains the same. Her first recording was described by poet Alix Olson as “gritty tunes charged with charm, toe-tapping poetry, and a sexy dose of wit.” The grit, charm, and wit are all still here, coupled with a relatively newfound voice and a prodigious talent on the guitar. While a night at the Iron Horse in her current habitat of Northampton is the closest to a home game that Pureka gets, she receives vast amounts of support in Cambridge’s Harvard Square, where she often challenges capacity fire codes in tightly packed places like Club Passim. Last spring, Pureka went on a national tour to far off places that most local musicians only visit on vacation, if ever. The singer, her two guitars, and the occasional touring companions have traversed the nation. She regards it as one of the most important things that a performer can invest their time and money in. The key is being a smart investor, which Pureka clearly is. “Every night you’re not playing is an extra night in a hotel room,” she counsels, rubbing her finger and thumb together in the universal sign for “money.” A model of touring efficiency, Pureka plays as much as possible, cutting down on the idle time. There are no romanticized visions of the road-weary artist taking out her guitar in a lonesome truck-stop to write a tune about how road-weary she might be: “When you do get your alone time, you want to chill out.” While she writes almost exclusively from experience with some of those experiences being of the on-the-road variety, she simply takes things in and brings them home. “Then I hash it out,” she says, always ready for new material. One thing that immediately strikes a person about Pureka is an air of authenticity and honesty. Relaxed and affable, she puts up no walls and seems genuinely interested in her surroundings and those around her. She asks questions and listens to the answer carefully before offering a response. While her speaking voice is actually quite different from her singing voice, both are colored by a certain quick wit and warm personality that draws people in, whether she is singing or talking. Audiences are helpless to resist. Often, performers will take the stage concerned about whether or not the audience will enjoy the set. When Pureka takes the stage, the tables seem turned, as if the audience is in a state of default enchantment that borders on delirium; Pureka could instruct them to do anything and they’d probably rush over each other to get it done. Whether you draw screaming teenaged girls or long-faced goth kids, every artist has a demographic, a section of people that always seem to get it. “I definitely get a lot more women in my audiences,” explains Pureka. She thinks for a second and then elaborates, “I think my crowd is people who are like my age; my kind of life style.” This, of course, is nice — an audience wants to identify with the performer, but there is more to Pureka than a lifestyle or a musical style. “I prefer to have a wider appeal,” she decides, “I don’t want to be pigeonholed.” The four-letter “F” word comes up a lot. “I tend to not want to be pigeonholed into folk singing,” she says. While “folk” is not a dirty word to Pureka, she can understand how some hear the term. “Some of my music is super-folky, but a lot of what I listen to is indie rock,” she says. And she does look a little not-so-folk at the moment, with her wide-linked chain necklace and necktie section pinned around her wrist. She thinks of her new album, Dryland, and becomes immediately excited for her musical cause. “This new album is like a spread; some songs are super folky ...” she looks around, almost furtively, before continuing with the bomb: “... some songs are kind of more punk rock or indie — I’d like to continue to walk that line,” she opines, concluding, “I really like being involved in both of those communities and I don’t want to pick one.” Chris Pureka is capable of pulling a big crowd. When asked if she thinks people are coming for the music or more for part of the social scenery of it all, she grimaces. While it is clear that her audience is a thoughtful, listening audience, there is a small percent of non-listeners that would give any artist fits. “I get into some trouble,” she sighs. “I played at some pride festivals, places where people end up coming to something just for a social reason,” she explains. “That is something that I am trying to get away from doing exclusively. I really want to try to play more music venues.” There is no question that people from all walks of life appreciate Pureka and her music. For starters, she has an independent fan site. Pictures, news, even guitar tablature and lyrics are posted at www.chrispureka.net, a site managed not by Pureka’s manager, best friend, or little sister, but a person named Matt Haven from — where else — Ann Arbor, Michigan. “I wanted to do something to support her music and hopefully encourage others to do the same,” states Haven via email. “The internet is one of the best places to find good new artists,” says the webmaster, who found Pureka through an online message board. “I just wanted to be a part of that for an artist I really love.” Chris Pureka is appreciative, and has even checked the tablature (“It’s mostly right,” she says). The website isn’t some sort of Times New Roman, busted-link, college computer class project either; chrispureka.net is a fully functioning and well-attended website with around 300 posts on the message board from people across the country who share an appreciation for all things Pureka. Many of them are passionate on the subject, even posting their own recorded cover versions of their favorite Pureka songs. That must be what the tablature is for. Tabbing out a guitar part written by the quick-fingered guitarist cannot be easy. She flies over the fretboard at times, utilizing rich, widely spaced chord voicings, peppered with quick hammer-ons, trills, and other such devices that morph a simple chord into a bona fide guitar part. “I’ve never liked songs with just plain chords,” she muses, working her fingers around an invisible guitar. Her case is full of tricks, including “the selective capo,” which only holds five out of six strings, allowing either the first or sixth string to ring out unaltered. “That probably screws up the tab site,” she smiles mischievously. She also switches from pick to fingerstyle and back again all in the space of the same song, palming the pick like a skilled magician, then reintroducing it into her playing without missing a note. Chris Pureka plays the guitar with such a loose, natural style that it seems second nature to her — like breathing, only less voluntary. Her connection to her instrument is almost unparalleled by any local acoustic guitarist; she throws her pick through the strings and it’s like wind through autumn branches. She sings and it’s a satisfying crunch and rustle of golden leaves in the same wind. Nature is a pervasive element in her entire body of work, and the art lies in the ability to be totally natural with no artificial preservatives, sweeteners, or anything else from her former life as a biologist. Pureka’s sentiments are her own outlook, formed into poetry and assigned meter and melody. Pureka does not make up stories; she simply shares her own. “I think in general I write a lot from my immediate situation,” explains the lanky singer, lazily flicking a straw around with her long fingers. “I write a lot about my surroundings.” She thinks for a second, trying to find the right way to put it. As expected, she finds it: “I don’t make things up.” The unabashed Pureka truly welcomed the world into her life for the first time on Driving North, which she describes as a break-up record. Always helpful, she also provided a roadmap to Driving North in the form of a lyric sheet. She plans to do the same with Dryland, half-joking that she feels a little ripped off when she opens up a compact disc and finds only a one-panel insert with a few credits. She wants to make sure people “get” her music — Pureka wants listeners, not bystanders. “I don’t like playing in bars very much,” she confirms. “It’s not ‘background’ music.” Perhaps she wouldn’t care if her music wasn’t so sharing, so intensely autobiographical. With Dryland, Pureka is expanding past the living-with-the-breakup record to a simple living record. “I’m going to explore a little more of that territory in my new record,” says Pureka, referring to her new release. “It’s going to be a little more perspective and a little less self-centered,” she explains. Dryland continues the evolution of Pureka, in both lyrical content and musical arrangement. “Stylistically, it’s a transition ... it makes sense as a follow-up record to the other one,” explains the artist. Described as “more produced,” among other things, it marks the first use of piano on any Pureka recording. While she has expanded some values, she has reined others in as well, creating a record more ornate in some ways, and simpler in others. “It’s evolved to a pretty good place,” she posits. “The new record focuses a little bit more on songwriting as a craft, and not specifically any other thing.” While she has simplified some aspects of her songwriting, the tablature scribes of chrispureka.net still need to sharpen up their transcription pencils: “There are a few tunes with pretty complicated guitar parts,” she smiles, still working the straw, forks, knives, spoons, pens — anything available — with her long, nimble fingers. Recording the new album was a rewarding experience for Pureka. “I definitely think about all the really positive things that happened,” she says, before adding that she will try some things differently for the next one. Instead of using the same core band for the entire record, different players were brought in for different parts, in an effort to create a customized musical fit for each song. While this brings a natural and organic feel to the song, Pureka, ever the perfectionist, still sees the value of rehearsal. One particularly positive thing was the revisiting of a song she had written in her college days. Pureka took this song from the past, and reworked it, writing a few new parts here, adding a vocal line there, and it has become one of her favorite songs on the new record. It seems clear that Pureka is not the same artist she was in the early days. Her work is a living example of something she may have studied in the labs back at Wesleyan: a natural system in progress. “I definitely take in what’s happening around me; I tend to notice things like the weather and the season and they work themselves into the songwriting,” says the eternally in-tune Pureka. She is not simply a figurehead for a lifestyle or genre; she is an artist who creates her art almost without thinking. Natural progress and evolution cannot be halted or faked. Pureka’s evolution as an artist is like a deliciously unending autumn, where the colors just keep getting richer, garnering more and more attention from passersby until everyone is hopelessly intrigued, enchanted, and engaged by the natural New England phenomenon known as Chris Pureka. www.chrispureka.net

All Music Guide by All Music Guide
Dryland's essays and musical sketches plunge the listener into sensitive and moving tales accompanied by Chris Pureka's Stevie Nicks-style guitar plucking and distinctive voice. Listen to her mournful fade on "Momentary Thief," the sixth track on her second full-length disc: it's an extraordinary tune that builds with each listen. Much like Jackie DeShannon on her underappreciated masterpiece You Know Me, this young singer/songwriter has much to offer. Introspective and deep, the landscape is akin to Neil Young's Harvest without the explosions of "Alabama" and "Words." Pureka keeps that subtle approach close to the vest from song to song -- "Everything Is Free" feeling those soulful chord changes while Allison Miller's drums and Lyndell Montgomery's bass keep pace -- and provides a solid embrace for the catchy melodies. The packaging is totally in sync with the country element, the voice and violin tightly aligned in "Compass Rose." The songs are four to five or more minutes long and Mark Alan Miller's superlative production allows them to sparkle without getting cluttered. When Ferron's Shadows on a Dime was released in 1989, it heralded a new approach. Pureka is not pioneering in that fashion, but she has definitely taken up the mantle that Ferron provided and the results are satisfying and full of musical intrigue. If Chris Pureka can continue to deliver music along these lines in the future, she will be a contender and Dryland will be a cornerstone for her fans to dip back into and enjoy. At 51 and a half minutes, Dryland is generous and important.

Expand

Stage Specs

Technical Requirements

(set-up sufficient for solo/duo performance)
Stage, adequate stage lighting, minimal PA, 6 channel board, pair of all purpose speakers, 1 vocal microphone, 2 DIs (1 for acoustic guitar with pre-amp, 1 for porch board floor bass), 1 boom stand, one guitar stand (if available), monitors.

See More of Chris Pureka's Photos

iAnEAqqqq

Video Playback Error

Chris Pureka

About the Artist

Music

Photos

Videos

Photos

Videos

Achievements

Press Coverage

Stage Specs

Technical Requirements

Technical Requirements