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Chris
Vallillo Bio
Chris
Vallillo is a nationally
acclaimed singer/songwriter
and folk musician who
makes the people and places
of “unmetropolitan” America
come to life in song.
Having spent the last
30 years in the rural
Midwest , he has a natural
affinity for American
roots music. Performing
on six-string and bottleneck
slide guitars and harmonica,
Vallillo weaves original,
contemporary, and traditional
songs and narratives into
a compelling and entertaining
portrait of the history
and lifestyles of the
Midwest . Dirty Linen
magazine described the
music as, “vivid, original
story songs” delivered
with an “eye for detail
and a sense of history”
while Folk Wax Magazine
Editor, Arthur Wood
said “Vallillo's guitar
playing flows like warm
honey and is a true aural
delight.”
For
Chris, a good song is
as much a work of art
as any painting or sculpture.
His music has a timeless
quality about it, with
one foot in the past and
one foot in the future.
Perhaps the archaeology
degree Vallillo earned
at Beloit College helped
him see the important
little details of life
which imbue his songs
with a sense of history.
His prairie poet style
has been compared to Edgar
Lee Masters and Vachel
Lindsay and you can hear
the strains of the Carter
Family and Jimmy Rogers
reflected in his writing.
It’s roots based original
and contemporary folk
with the rich acoustic
textures of bottleneck
slide, finger style and
flatpicked guitars that
echo the influences of
Mississippi John Hurt,
Norman Blake, Doc Watson
and John Fahey.
A
recipient of a 1986 Illinois
Arts Council
Artist Fellowship Award
for music
composition, Chris was
also a nominee for the
Illinois Arts
Council's 1987 Governor's
Award for
Individual Artist. In
the mid 1980’s he conducted
the Schuyler
Arts Folk Music Project
, interviewing
and documenting the last
of the pre radio generation
of musicians. The tapes
and transcripts of that
project are now part of
the Library of
Congress Folklife Collection
in Washington
, DC . From 1990 through
1998 he served as the
performing host and co-producer
of the nationally distributed,
award-winning public radio
performance series Rural
Route 3
where he performed next
to (and with) a virtual
who’s who of contemporary
and traditional folk and
roots musicians. His most
recent project, a one
man show titled Abraham
Lincoln in Song ,
received the endorsement
of the Abraham Lincoln
Bicentennial Commission
and the accompanying CD
of music reached #10 on
Billboard’s
Bluegrass Album Chart
in March of 2008.
He is currently serving
as the Illinois State
Scholar for the Smithsonian
Institution’s traveling
exhibit on roots music
New Harmonies
.
Chris
Vallillo is a member of
the Illinois Arts Council's
Artstour Roster
, the Illinois
Arts Council’s Artists
in Education
program, the Illinois
Humanities Council's Road
Scholars
program, and the Heartland
Fund's Community
Connections
program. Each of these
prestigious programs provides
funding assistance for
the presentation of talented
professional artists to
audiences throughout the
Midwest .
Special Projects
- 2006-2008:Illinois State Scholar for the Smithsonian Institution's traveling exhibition on Roots Music, New Harmonies.
- 2006: Host and performer onChicago Public Television's Arts Across Illinois Centerstage, Live!
- 2003: Artistic producer and performer for the Illinois Mississippi River Valley Project Festival, a weekend of workshops and performances August 15th and 16th, in Galena, IL.
- 2003: Co-producing the Folk Songs of Illinois CD for the Illinois Humanities Council's Heritage Music Project CD series.
- 2001-2002: Carried out the field work for the Illinois Arts Council's Illinois Mississippi River Valley Project, designed to document the artists along the Mississippi River.
- October 2000: Performer and Producer of the On the Farm Harvest Festival for the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL.
- 1990-1997: Host and co-producer of the award winning nationally syndicated public radio series Rural Route 3.
- 1993-1994: The Civil War and Reconstruction. 22 part public television series. Composed, performed and recorded the theme song, arranged, performed and recorded period music on vintage instruments for the sound track.
- 1993: Echoes Of A Country Schoolhouse. Commissioned by the Gardener Museum of Architecture, Quincy, IL to co-write and perform in a 2 person interactive play on the one room schoolhouse experience.
- 1992-1993: Illinois Historic Panorama. Composed, performed, and recorded the soundtrack for the 13 part public television series on the history of Illinois from the glaciers to the present.
- 1987: The Schuyler Arts Folk Music Collecting Project. Designed and carried out a music collecting project for the Illinois Arts Council and the Schuyler Arts Council in co-operation with the Library of Congress Folklife Center. The collection was accepted into the Library of Congress Folklife Archives in 1988.
Awards
- 2007: Quality of Life Award for collecting historic music and producing musical events reflelctive of the roots music of rural Illinois.
- 2001: Administrative Fellowship, Illinois Arts Council to conduct the Illinois Mississippi River Valley Project.
- 1998: National Federation of Community Broadcaster's Special Merit Award for National Music/Entertainment Series for the Rural Route 3 Radio Show.
- 1995: National Federation of Community Broadcaster's Bronze Reel Award for National Music/Entertainment Series for the Rural Route 3 Radio Show.
- 1987: Nominated for the Illinois Arts Council's Governor's Award for Individual Artist.
- 1986: Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship Award for Music Composition.
- 1985: Finalist at the Kerrville Folk Festival Songwriting Competition, Kerrville, Texas.
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