Chris Morris
Chris Morris is a folk singer from Kingston, Ontario, now living in the Ottawa Valley.
For over 25 years, his music and high-energy performances have been heard all over Southeastern Ontario, encompassing folk and other traditional genres from the Delta to Dylan, the plantations to the Appalachians, the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. Folk, blues, roots, alt-country, singer-songwriter, bluegrass, spirituals – it’s all blended together and performed with a captivating intensity, and a healthy dash of humour, that will take you along through songs happy and sad, upbeat foot-tappers and singalongs, murder ballads, love songs, blues and who knows what else! His debut solo album, I Know This All Too Well, was produced by Tom Savage and was released in 2018.
Chris listens to a wide variety of music and pulls influences from everything he hears: traditional folk and mountain music, blues, spirituals and field hollers, bluegrass, classic rock, classic country, jam bands, soul, jazz, reggae, alternative and indie rock, blues, and more. His diverse repertoire of over 200 songs mixes originals, traditionals, and covers of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Stompin’ Tom Connors, Robert Johnson, The Beatles, Phish, Paul Simon, Bruce Cockburn, Woody Guthrie, Elmore James, The Rolling Stones, Hank Williams, The Band, Bruce Springsteen, and many more.
Aside from a busy performance schedule, Chris is involved behind the scenes as a promoter (Doghouse Studios), artistic director (Back to the Farm), festival coordinator (Homegrown Live) and booking agent (Jon McLurg).
Chris began performing live at the age of 14. He recorded two albums of original material in the mid-90s as school projects, and several copies (of each!) were sold, and they have sadly fallen out of circulation, largely due to disinterest from both Chris and the general public. Chris was a member of several rock bands throughout high school and college, but always maintained a strong repertoire of solo material rooted in folk and other acoustic-based styles. Always a champion of local and unknown artists, Chris started a concert promotion business in 2002: Rock Crew Productions. Rock Crew Productions produced over 250 concerts in 4 years, including Arcade Fire, Tegan & Sara, The Weakerthans, Serena Ryder, k-os and many more. Much of his focus throughout this time was on the business and his family, and it wasn’t until 2008 when the opportunity came to host an open stage, the Kingston Folk Club, that Chris returned to regular performing and writing.