Album Notes

Chris Harper fell in love for the first time, at the tender age of twelve,with the soulful sound of Sonny Boy Williamson. He raced down to his local music store, to meet the source of his inspiration. Since then, he has been dedicated to his life long passion, the harmonica.

In Switzerland the home of his birth, he pursued the sounds, the soul and feeling of the Blues in all it’s forms. From rock and soul to dixieland and the sweet Chicago grooves of Muddy Waters and Junior Wells.
He played and jammed from mountains to the valleys with every band he could find. One day, the blues came calling in the person of Aaron Burton, a great Chicago bluesman and bassist. Aaron Burton presented him with his first opportunity to feel the real deal. It set a fire in his heart that burned for Sweet Home Chicago!

When the plane touched down in O’Hare he could feel it. In the ground and in the air, the blues was everywhere! Buddy Guy, Willie Kent, Billy Branch, Melvin Taylor and Sugar Blue! He jammed with a great many of them. Michael Coleman, J. W. Williams, Vance Kelly and Charlie Love were among the musicians that welcomed him.
He and Sugar Blue became great friends. Sugar Blue passed on to him the knowledge he had learned from Big Walter, Junior Wells, Willie Dixon and Carey Bell about the harmonica and the blues.
He left Chicago with the sounds in his heart and a dream in his head, to put together a band and make his debut CD! In Zurich, he met a swinging Italian group, the Sharade Band.

The Sharade Band consists of Gianluca Baroncelli on saxophone, Giacomo Lauria on keyboards, Stefano Moruzzi on guitar, Albano Castrese on bass, and Enrico Cecconi on drums. Some of Italy’s finest musicians. And they have become great musical partners in the realization of this project.
Together with them he realized his Swississippi dreams. That dream is his first CD Blues Is My Life. It contains fine traditional blues with many of his original songs, steeped in the funky fusion of jazz, R&B and his true love, the blues.

Featured are many of his friends from Chicago; Billy Branch, Chico Banks, the Chicago Horns, Kay C. Reed, Mae Koen and Vanessa Holmes, three of the finest voices on the music scene.

Chris is ecstatic about this music and once you hear it you will be too!
Climb aboard, relax and enjoy the ride!