Christine Bauer

Christine is an awesome songwriter, a female BOB DYLAN. - Tim Butler (two time finalist at The Jimi Hendrix Guitar Festival in Seattle, Washington)

That's All Folks

Local singer / songwriter Christine Bauer has several irons in the fire. Director Dan Johnson just shot a video for one of her songs, "Thinking of You," which should be out this week, and she's contributing to the soundtrack of one of his films. She's also recording a new CD at Misunderstudio (the working titles are Unplugged and Out of Nowhere) with a trio that includes multi-instrumentalist Gwen King (on ukulele, sax, clarinet, penny whistles, accordion, and back up vocals) and bassist James Ricks. The trio will perform Sunday, November 21 at Rustle Hill Winery.

Bauer tells Nightlife that she wants the new disc "to sound like the three of us would sound on stage. My thoughts on this are, when a listener hears an artist live and buys their CD, takes the artist home in the CD form, prepares to enjoy them again, and they are greeted by total strangers they had never met, the experience is often unpleasant."

"Musically, we are like three soulmates," Bauer says of the trio. "I am so lucky to have them in my musical life. There are absolutely no egos that revolve around our music."

"I met Christine recently through Gwen King, with whom I share a performer's slot in Cabaret Decadance," Ricks tells Nightlife. "Christine had asked Gwen if she knew of any available upright players who would be open to trying out her material for a recording project. As Gwen doesn't really know my past musical transgressions, she felt that I might be a good candidate. So far, what I'm doing for Christine seems to be agreeable.
"Ricks became a fixture on Carbondale's music scene back in the 1980s with pioneering hardcore band Diet Christ, and in the next decade with punkabilly band the Bottletones, among many others since then.

"I knew [Bauer's] style isn't often associated with my past playing styles, but actually I've been a singer/songwriter fan for years-- I first started listening to Nanci Griffith, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, and the like in high school."
As with Ricks, King isn't well known for a folk-music side, but she's admired Bauer from the first listen.
"'Thinking of You' was the first of Christine Bauer's songs that I ever heard, and I was very impressed with her performance," King says. "I hadn't listened to much music from the acoustic-folk and singer / songwriter genres, but I was very attracted to Christine's work. Then, seemingly out of the blue, Christine asked me to try playing my pennywhistle on an original song entitled 'Hermit of White Otter Lake.' My experiences with collaborative improvisation up until that point had been mostly jazz-related through Cabaret Decadance, so I was eager for the opportunity to explore other styles. Christine was pleased with what I came up with, and since then we've just been having a great time delving into her repertoire and experimenting with different instruments. I love being able to enhance the music's character and expression by choosing an accompanying instrument or vocal harmony to suit the song. From my biased point of view, adding an instrumentalist to the traditional folk/acoustic guitar and vocals gives the music a fuller and more distinctive sound. And everything's gotten so much richer now that James has brought his excellent bassmanship into the mix."

"Besides the various instruments that Gwen brings, she has a good ear for music and also reads music and understands musical terms, so [she] is able to communicate quickly to James what I am attempting to say as far as [the] bass [parts] I want," says Bauer. "She understands my music and knows what would embellish the songs without taking away the soul of the song.

"James is such a wonderful addition to the group," adds Bauer. "His sweet electric bass complements the music for an extremely full sound.... James also plays a strong standup bass with driving percussion and unique, mood-evoking sounds."

The three have not yet decided to form a permanent group. As for King, "I intend to play and sing with Christine Bauer for the foreseeable future, whenever and wherever I can. Christine is always developing new music and writing new material, so I'm grateful for the chance to get involved in that process. And now that James is here, there's even more potential-- it's very exciting! I'm definitely hooked."

Bauer, for her part, wants to keep the trio together-- Ricks says that Bauer asked them about band names when recording last weekend at Misunderstudio. "The three of us are very intense musicians and lose ourselves while playing," Bauer says. "They both love playing with my music, and I hope it will be a permanent thing-- for around this area, anyway.... I feel privileged to be playing with such great people. We revert to preadolescence during rehearsal-- it is absolute pure fun and wonderfully intense. Sometimes I can't believe there are only three of us."... - "Nightlife"

"With a voice as powerful as the winds that blow across the plains of her native Canada and an arsenal of varied and infectious guitar styles, Bauer with her self penned blend of folk rock, jazz and blues, has been charming audiences across Southern Illinois."

- Jeff Hale

"With a voice as powerful as the winds that blow across the plains of her native Canada and an arsenal of varied and infectious guitar styles, Bauer with her self penned blend of folk rock, jazz and blues, has been charming audiences across Southern Illinois."

- Jeff Hale

"I don’t like comparing musicians to others, especially for someone incomparable like Christine. Instead, I like to think of the stories. When Joni Mitchell sings “A Case of You”, or “The Last Time I saw Richard”, or perhaps when the Indigo Girls sing about stopping at a bar at 3 AM in “Closer to Fine”, I imagine that the unrecognized musician on the stage to be someone like Christine Bauer."

- "Orient Lodge" 10/11/2010

"I don’t like comparing musicians to others, especially for someone incomparable like Christine. Instead, I like to think of the stories. When Joni Mitchell sings “A Case of You”, or “The Last Time I saw Richard”, or perhaps when the Indigo Girls sing about stopping at a bar at 3 AM in “Closer to Fine”, I imagine that the unrecognized musician on the stage to be someone like Christine Bauer."

- "Orient Lodge" 10/11/2010

"Good tunes, very Canadian"
- Dan Sharon

"Good tunes, very Canadian"
- Dan Sharon

"Style is not unlike Harry Chapin and Cat Stevens"

- Brian Allen

"Style is not unlike Harry Chapin and Cat Stevens"

- Brian Allen

"You have something there definitely!"

- Chris Vature

"You have something there definitely!"

- Chris Vature

"We always enjoy having Christine play at our winery. She has a stong style and can always be counted upon to put on a great performance, the crowds love it. We're looking forward to having Christine out again in a couple of weeks, come check her out "

- Teri Hammond

"We always enjoy having Christine play at our winery. She has a stong style and can always be counted upon to put on a great performance, the crowds love it. We're looking forward to having Christine out again in a couple of weeks, come check her out "

- Teri Hammond