Chris Whitley : Dirt Floor / Live at Martyrs'

Album: Dirt Floor
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Source: LL (from CD)
Released: 1998
Styles: Rock;Blues;Slide
Time: 38:48
Size: 89,9 MB
Covers: Full

(3:42) 1. Scrapyard Lullaby
(3:39) 2. Indian Summer
(3:27) 3. Accordingly
(3:08) 4. Wild Country
(2:38) 5. Ballpeen Hammer
(2:17) 6. From One Island To Another
(2:52) 7. Altitude
(2:10) 8. Dirt Floor
(3:09) 9. Loco Girl
(2:58) 10. The Model (bonus live)
(4:45) 11. Alien (bonus live)
(3:57) 12. Living With the Law (bonus live)

This is the most consistent and accessible disc of Chris Whitley's off-and-on recording career. The album is just Whitley singing and accompanying himself on banjo, guitar and foot stomp. It has a simple and wonderfully stripped-down sound that fits perfectly with the morose yet tumultuous mood of the songs, establishing a strong atmosphere that is almost as important to the work as the mood in a '40s film noir. This is an exceedingly short work, only 27+ minutes, yet it really shouldn't be much longer. If you were expecting Big Sky Country in sound, you will be both happy and disappointed: happy because there is the same stripped-down, nasal singing and story-songs, and disappointed because there is not as much dobro, nor a band helping him flesh out the tunes. He does an excellent job on the small amount of material here, yet it does not develop into anything due to the lack of time; at the same time, the tone is so very angst-ridden that the short length may work in its favor. There are no liner notes or comments for this disc. What is here is excellent in its own right and stands up as some of his best work; I just wonder if maybe another song or two might have made it a stronger work. -- Allmusic.
An excellent slide guitarist with a confident, veloce curviness that varies high, lonesome country with moaning country blues, Whitley unraveled his early commercial potential one album at a time. He deserves our admiration for following up his mostly acoustic debut, Living with the Law, with a pair of white-noise albums loud enough to make Sonic Youth wear earplugs. "Dirt Floor," with a barren, desperate quality and iterative images of running (especially on the intense "Ballpeen Hammer" and the love-and-loss ballad "Loco Girl") has the same airy, blues feeling of his superb early work. -- Amazon.

Dirt Floor

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Album: Live at Martyrs'
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Source: LL (from Cd)
Released: 1999
Styles: Rock;Blues;Slide
Time: 47:29
Size: 109,2 MB
Covers: Full

(2:11) 1. Dirt Floor
(4:01) 2. Long Way Around
(2:27) 3. Firefighter
(2:32) 4. God Thing
(3:13) 5. Poison Girl
(3:03) 6. New Machine
(3:43) 7. Living with the Law
(2:52) 8. WPL
(3:01) 9. The Model
(3:22) 10. Home Is Where You Get Across
(2:53) 11. From One Island to Another
(3:21) 12. Serve You
(3:51) 13. Narcotic Prayer
(6:53) 14. Big Sky Country

Chris Whitley recorded three nights in August 1999 at Martyrs' in Chicago. He played songs from four albums (Living with the Law (1991), Din of Ecstasy (1995), Terra Incognita (1997), and Dirt Floor (1998). Whitley released the album independently and sold the CDs at his shows before an official release in 2000.
Live at Martyrs' would be the only live release that the late great Chris Whitley would record during his lifetime. Like his previous release, the excellent Dirt Floor, it just features Chris' voice and guitar. However, while Dirt Floor was subdued for the most part, Live at Martyrs' shows a range of emotions. Unlike most musicians, Chris preferred to take the road less traveled by often altering his songs in a live setting to express a distinctive mood. This trait, along with his explosive performances, led to many fans and critics lauding his shows as legendary and Live at Martyrs proves this statement true. -- Amazon.

Live at Martyrs'
Live at Martyrs' artwork

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