Acrpost: A Project of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres

Event Description

CR Avery Band
Friday, February 5, 2010
Hermanns Jazz Club, 753 View St., Victoria
Doors 6:00pm - Showtime 8:00pm
Tickets: $16.00 Advance / $18 Door
Available at: Lyle's Place 770 Yates St., Ditch Records 635 Johnson St.
and online at www.hightideconcerts.net

CR websites: www.cravery.com & www.myspace.com/cravery

"... blowin' my mind ..." - Tom Waits
"Imagine if Neil Young was inspired by hip-hop, and there you have C.R. Avery." - The Vancouver Sun

"No one plays [harmonica] like him, no one... but I think what people are going to get excited about are the words." - Charlie Musselwhite.

"Raw talent." - Utah Phillips

"Kids In The Hall isn't the only good thing coming out of Canada." - Sage Francis

BIO

C.R. Avery is a one man hip hop beatbox blues harmonica americana iconoclast - touring the world with The Be Good Tanyas, Tons Of Fun University, and solo through the slam poetry circuit. Tom Waits is a fan and brought CR up to perform on stage with him in Germany. If Paul Butterfield could rhyme, you'd have an idea of what a groundbreaking piece of work this is and the genre busting audio statement that defines Magic Hour Sailor Songs. C.R. Avery is a musicians' musician. He is admired by and has performed with Tom Waits, Ani DiFranco, Utah Phillips, Sage Francis and The Be Good Tanyas. This is his new solo album (his debut for Bongo Beat) and we're proud to bring him to a wider audience. Whether playing in front of thousands at the Royal Albert Hall or in a small café on hometown Vancouver's Commercial Drive, C.R. Avery is a unique and electrifying performer. He simultaneously beatboxes, sings, plays harmonica and keyboard guitar (keytar). Having drawn from the same well of influences of Woody Guthrie, Allen Ginsberg and Sonny Boy Williamson, it's no surprise that C.R.'s songs steer down the same paths as Bob Dylan and Neil Young, with the live intensity of a young Springsteen or Paul Butterfield. C.R. also releases CDs as The C.R. Avery Band. C.R.'s lyrical skills and vocal delivery has brought him to the forefront of the international spoken word scene. He is a past winner of the CBC national Poetry Face-Off. Scratchy, smoky, beaten by years of cigarettes and off-mike shouting in cabarets all over the world, C.R. Avery's voice is instantly identifiable. C.R's lyrics come from his slam poetry pieces, honed by the merciless, sudden death, one-victor-and-all- others-cast-aside competitive nature of the slam world. As such, having been performed in front of an audience that demands both intellectual clarity and visceral honesty, competing against the very best work of the very best poets, his pieces are crafted to a necessary perfection. Magic Hour Sailor Songs is blues, hip hop beatboxing, americana - an elegiac poetic tour de force, bending and criss-crossing genres (there's even a real string quartet) seamlessly to create something rarely seen these days - a genuinely powerful artistic work. This CD is available on iTunes.