What the reviews are saying:
"In his album Roadhouses and Dance Halls Lonnie Mack sang that he was "too Rock for Country and too Country for Rock and Roll" and a similar lyric may fit Christopher Lockett's debut album. Only in his case the question is "Is he too folk for Alt-Country or too Alt-Country for folk?" Either way it makes him fully AMERICANA. When I read the title of the first song "Heartbroke, Drunk and Restless," I expected an album of rowdy Alt-Country ala a Kevin Fowler but what I got was a collection of introspective songs with some great lyrics and some pretty cool instrumentals mixed in."
" Every time I listen to it I hear something new and like the album just a little more."
"There's somebody who I think the gravel voiced Locket sounds like but I've yet to place the voice! Anyway the lyrics of his songs are great and there's great lines in just about every song."
Ed Karn - NoDepression.com
" His vocals could front an alt-country roots band, with that little bit of twang, and that country stride that the best of the country-blues singers acheive.....yet..... his songs, instrumentation and arrangements are acoustic, organic, even sentimental and folky. Throw in some oddball acoustic instruments and you have the ingredients for some pretty eclectic songs, even if they are simple country or folk styled ballads. There's a nuance in the writing that sometimes defys his voice. His lyrics are simple, yet emotional and intelligent. Hold On To The Night is a lovely, if bittersweet ballad, again, laced with simple with honest emotion. The great, if a bit restrained, harmony vocal is from Trevi Fligg. In tandem, their vocals seem to sink into your pores."
John O'Hara - Call It Folk
“Deceptively simple songs that take a snapshot of a complex world and refine it down to a parable like those tunes in the Carter Family archive.”
“A serious rambler with an intelligent heart and a point of view in every song. “
“The better poets seem to step back a little and take things in from a big point of view. Chris has seen the world and shook its hand in Mali or Cote D’Ivoire West Africa, Haiti, Guatemala, Mexico. He learned his folk and country in Virginia and somehow manages to focus that down home flavor on a borderless brotherhood of humanity.”
“I could listen to a whole album of Christopher Lockett playing Mbira.”
“These are good songs that can walk by themselves. That’s all they need to be. That’s plenty.”
Billy Sheppard – billysbunker.com
“These songs sound very American. Sublime jaw harp and harmonica playing.”
“African and Eastern influences, but the storytelling Americana songs come out on top here. Great and swinging..”
“Lockett succeeds here in getting our attention and raising our curiosity about what comes next.”
Rootstime.be
Christopher Lockett is a Los Angeles based singer-songwriter with deep Southern roots watered liberally with world travel, an open ear and a hungry mind.
Lockett has been to Graceland as many times as he’s been to West Africa. Three trips to each in case you're wondering. His work as a Cinematographer has taken him around the world, often to very difficult and challenging places.
A powerful performer, Lockett's live show usually features guitar, harmonicas, jaw harp, Mbira (AKA Kalimba), mandolin, fiddle, Appalachian dulcimer – all anchored by djembe or cajon. Depends on the night. Depends on the lineup. Depends on what instrument Lockett has brought home from his most recent travels.
If all he's brought back are thoughts and observations on politics, religion and the troubles wrought by destructive corporate practices globally and at home, expect to hear about it. He is a former journalist, he can't help it. The First Amendment, he believes, only works if you use it.
He also believes that shakin' what you got and using your mind are not mutually exclusive
Lockett is joined here on his debut album by such seasoned and talented artists as the late, great and sorely missed Amy Farris (Ray Price, Alejandro Escovedo, Brian Wilson, Kelly Willis, Dave Alvin), Skip Heller (NRBQ, Stan Ridgway, Wanda Jackson, Todd Rundgren, Rosie Flores, Les Baxter, Yma Sumac, Robert Drasnin, Rick Danko, Dave Alvin, Carol Kaye), Mona Tavakoli (Raining Jane), Voyce McGinley III (Kitaro, Amy Kuney, Severin Browne), Craig Ferguson (Cliff Wagner and the Old #7, Erik Janson), Irina Bjorklund (Peter Fox & Vintage Espresso) and Trevi Fligg.
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