Chris Whitley - Living With The Law, Is Dead At 45

Just read today that Chris Whitley is dead at 45 from lung cancer so I will post a couple of songs from his debut record Living With The Law. Highly influenced by the delta blues which is the foundation to this soulful, moody and atmospheric record, Chris plays great acoustic slide guitar and has a wonderful bluesy, soulful voice to go along with these really good songs wrapped in a great recording by Malcolm Burn who worked with Daniel Lanois on many records. This record got great reviews and Chris opened for Tom Petty on tour, which I saw him on and I met him after his opening set through a record company meet and greet. He seemed very down to earth and maybe a little shy but then those things are kind of strange anyway. He was poised to be a star but took four years to record his follow up to his debut but it was a noisy mess with tunes that weren't very good. It never did anything for me. But by putting that record out he was staking his own ground to do what he wanted and being a "star" wasn't it.

I can highly recommend this record though and here is Big Sky Country which is the most pop oriented tune with tasteful keyboards, some slide guitar, great multi tracked vocals and a subdued lusty vibe to it's late night atmoshpere. Phone Call From Leavenworth is a straight acoustic country blues type number with nothing but pure stark emotion and it's not hard to figure out the subject matter.

Buy it here.