MUSIC FOR TOURISTS
Chris Garneau's voice lies somewhere between liquid and matter on the scale of all that is and ever was. He is certainly a rare bird. When he's not spending his free time at the town fairs, Chris can be found at his piano, singing hauting strains and playful stanzas, both equally refreshing as amber pints of beer on humid New York summer evenings. His music is uniquely Brooklyn in substance, but in his musical valise he carries souvenirs from Boston, France, and New Jersey, all of which inform his style. With his brow alternating between a doleful furrow and a mischievous arch, Garneau communicates simply and frankly about issues ranging from reverberating sorrow to the fine home cooking of Hamburger Helper.
His new album "Music for Tourists" brings the listener to an old establishment on the outskirts of the city where the floors creak and the wine flows as freely as the mellifluous tones from his band. Creating a sleepy bal-musette for the new century, Chris Garneau (piano, wurlitzer and vocals) and his equally adroit musical compatriots, Saul Simon-Mac Williams (harmonium, bass, melodica, and backup vocals) and Ben Kallo (cello), draw you into a world of gauzy twilit skylines and moss-covered piers on brackish rivers.
Like the start of many good ideas and numerous adventures, this project started with a meeting of minds and spirited discussions. Music for Tourists was produced by Duncan Shik and co-produced by Chris Garneau. Talks began in the summer of 2004, and soon after, the recording commenced. New songs rose on the top like tiny bubbles and were fleshed throughout the recording process, which ended a year and a half later in May of 2006. When all was settled, Garneau emerged with thirteen songs and a hidden fourteenth track - a cover of Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars" - all of them hard-won and beautifully crafted.
Most of "Music for Tourists" is the bare essentials. Some tracks were recorded live in the studio, others mildly produced with a few simple and organic layers. Overall, the record is painted with many of the same sounds you will hear at Chris' live shows : piano, vocals, cello, harmonium, and bass. Now and again you might catch a french horn from the nearby Holland Tunnel traffic, or a crash of thunder from a stormy summer night. "Music for Tourists" was recorded in its entirety at Sneaky Studios in New York, New York. It was mixed by Michael Tudor and mastered at Golden Mastering in Ventura, CA.
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