About Chris
Chris Carey was making music before he could walk. Like many future percussionists, he would beat on his mother's pots and pans and cause a general racket throughout the house. When he was about 6 years old, his mother started him on piano lessons which he continued throughout grade school. Growing up in the suburbs of Albany, NY, there wasn't much to do except play sports (no chance) study (ok maybe a little) or play music. By the time he was in junior high school, Chris had converted to the dark side - he became (gasp!) a percussionist.
Drums became Chris' passion, and he spent almost every waking minute practicing or playing. By the time he reached high school, he had garnered many accolades from peers and educators alike, and became a member of the prestigious Empire State Youth Orchestra percussion ensembles. Chris managed to graduate from Shenendehowa High School in 2003, and went off to the State University of New York at Oneonta to study Music Business.
It was in Oneonta that Chris met future collaborator - guitarist Chris Kyle, with whom he has been a member of several different bands. The two Chris's developed a great musical partnership in college which is still active to this day. Chris enjoyed his time in Oneonta, but realized that studying music business was no where close to the life that he wanted. He left Oneonta in 2006 to return to the Capital Region.
He decided to move up to Saratoga Springs that summer in 2006 to rejoin an old bandmate - singer/songwriter Sarah Pedinotti and start a new project with her. This eventually turned into a band called Railbird. There was only one problem - Railbird needed a guitarist. This problem was easily solved by calling up an old bandmate - Chris Kyle, who was living in Brooklyn at that time. Railbird has been going strong ever since, and the two Chris's have been collaborating with a number of Capital Region favorites including Rich Ortiz, and most recently Sean Rowe.
This would seem like enough to many musicians, but for Chris something was missing. He was becoming inspired by singer/songwriters like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, John Prine, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. So, in the summer of 2008 Chris bought himself an acoustic guitar and started writing songs. This was something he had always wanted to do, and he took to it immediately. Within the first week of having the guitar Chris had written two complete songs, one of which is featured on his debut album. Since then, he can't seem to get his hands off of the guitar. He started playing solo gigs in March of 2009 and recorded his first full-length album July-August of that same year. On this he performed vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, drums/percussion, piano, and harmonica. This album, called Sunset Moon also features Tony Markellis (Trey Anastasio Band, Kilimanjaro) on bass, local favorite Kevin Maul on dobro and pedal steel guitar, Tim Wechgelaer on fiddle and mandolin, Steve Candlen on additional drums and vocals, Sarah Pedinotti on harmony vocals, and of course, Chris Kyle on electric and acoustic guitars. Sunset Moon was released on January 9th, 2010 at the Bread and Jam cafe in Cohoes, NY while Chris and his band delivered their first concert to an over-capacity crowd. Tom Keyser of the Albany Times Union had this to say about it: "It's a masterful first album, sensitively conceived, flawlessly performed and meticulously recorded." Chris will be performing frequently under his own name, and continue to tour/record as an instrumentalist for hire. He currently resides in the village of Ballston Spa, NY where he keeps a small roster of drum students.
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