Chris Clifton & Chris Cook
Together at the Hog’s Breath Saloon

Chris Clifton and Chris Cook jam together for the first time at the Hog’s Breath Saloon, 400 Front St., beginning Monday, Aug. 7, 5:30-9:30 p.m., for six nights. Clifton, a country-rocker with lots of energy that comes across on stage, has been drawing audiences to the Hog’s Breath for years and Cook, a native of the Carolinas, is back after a successful solo gig at the Hog.

For more information, call 296-4222.
 

Singer-songwriter Chris Cook
performs solo at the Hog’s Breath Saloon

The first thing you’ll notice is the voice. Chris Cook, who performs at the Hog’s Breath Saloon, 400 Front St., for 10 afternoons, 5:30-9:30 p.m., beginning July 14, is a singer’s singer with a delivery that’s pure and natural, unforced but expressive, relaxed but full of inner fire. In finding his own voice, Cook has taken cues from favorite singers on the country-side (George Jones, Merle Haggard, George Strait) and the blues-rock realm (Paul Rodgers, Jimmy Hall, Lowell George). You’ll hear a bit of Jackson Browne’s earnestness and Jimmy Buffett’s laid-back whimsy, too.

These days the hard-working Cook performs an average of 200 dates a year with and without a band. He’s particularly proud of his unaccompanied sets. “I’ve got a strong solo act,” he says. “I play acoustic guitar, stomp a tambourine with my foot, blow harmonica and sing. It keeps me working!”

“Small Town Gone,” Cook’s second CD, deserves to establish him as a remarkable vocalist and guitarist who takes a fresh approach to homespun sounds. As far as the pesky matter of genre is concerned, “I think I have no choice to but call “Small Town Gone” a country record,” Cook concedes with a laugh. “That’s where it’s going on the shelf. Still, I feel the record is as much Americana as it is country. To me, it’s kind of a mixture of country, folk, and blues. It’s roots music.”

For more information, call 296-4222.