Chris Mills
Sugar Free Records
Chicago's Chris Mills has recruited quite a roster of indie musicians to help him record his southern drawl rock, including Edith Frost and members of Paul K. & the Weathermen, Red Red Meat, and Pinetop Seven. Mills has a great big weary voice that sounds like pure, unadulterated American heartbreak, and it's perfect for his rootsy, poignantly country-tinged pieces filled with crying mandolins, sighing pedal steel, wistful acoustic guitars, and tired, lazy electric guitars. Don't get the idea that Mills doesn't rock though; he lets all his Midwestern sadness and sorrow get a full head of steam until it all turns into rousing, gritty, country-rock choruses. As a teenager, Mills lived in Southern Illinois, where he became a fan of Midwestern alt-country superband Uncle Tupelo, and that group's rugged acousticism and naked honesty has clearly had a big impact on Mills's own writing. Over the course of his career (which has spanned three albums now), Mills developed beyond the Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt indie-country idiom and adopted a bigger, grander style of heartland rock often reminiscent of greats like The Band, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and Bruce Springsteen.
Mills debuted in 1998 with Every Night Fight for Your Life, featuring "1,000 Blue-Eyed Girls." He came back that same year with Nobody's Favorite. In 2000, he released his third album, Kiss It Goodbye, featuring "Watch Chain," a truly great piece of melancholy, fractured country. If you've ever responded to country music or heartland rock, you're sure to find something to like in this fantastic young singer-songwriter.
Jesse Ashlock
last updated:
08/31/01
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