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Chris Whitley
Rocket House

Few moments are as exciting as the one where it becomes undeniably clear that an artist has made his breakthrough. Rocket House is that moment for Chris Whitley. After a decade as one of rock's most beloved cult icons, Whitley has reinvented himself from the bottom up. Rocket House, Whitley's seventh album and first full-fledged studio recording in five years, finds his characteristic smoky-voiced blues-rock dirges invigorated by trip-hop beats, lushly layered arrangements and a soulful vocal style that invokes Al Green as much as Howlin' Wolf.

Produced by Tony Mangurian (Luscious Jackson), Rocket House is a textured sound collage that builds on Whitley's trademark dobro, banjo and slide guitar songcraft. Keyboardist Stephen Barber (Shawn Colvin, Eric Johnson) joins Whitley for all of the album's 11 songs, along with Mangurian on drums and DJ Logic on turntables. Several other musical friends appear on Rocket House: Dave Matthews and Bruce Hornsby heard early demos of the record and independently asked if they could play on the album, and both musicians contribute to "Radar." Whitley's 14-year-old daughter, Trixie, found a studio near her home in Belgium to record vocals on "Chain" and "Serve You." Longtime Rolling Stones and former Beach Boys backing vocalist Blondie Chaplin sings on several tracks. Badal Roy (Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman) added his signature tablas to "Little Torch."

Whitley's songs are as visceral and cerebral as ever. The primal, eastern melodies of the opener "To Joy (Revolution Of The Innocents)" reveal Whitley's roots in the eclectic sound of bands like Can and Kraftwerk. Almost by way of introduction, he sings in the song's chorus, "Angels, and even devils, too, all await to show how far we come to joy." The tone of Whitley's compositions is restless, but deliberate: "Rocket House" pits sparse guitar melodies against a driving breakbeat as Whitley croons like Ray Charles at a rave. "Little Torch" is harmonically soothing, but is offset by DJ Logic's ominous sampling and Whitley's warning, "They never gonna let you get away / Well the world will follow always."

The album's quieter moments may be more familiar to fans of Whitley's past work. The mostly-solo acoustic "Solid Iron Heart" gives a nod to his earlier albums, and the languid tempo of "Serve You" mingles amicably with Whitley's gruff falsetto. The carnal, ghostly "Vertical Desert" and the ethereal "Something Shines" draw the album to a dramatic end. The unsettling samples, haunting piano and searching lyrics leave a bittersweet taste as the album fades to a close.

Chris Whitley has become almost a mythical character, shrouded in mystery and intensity. His nomadic childhood led him through homes in Texas, Mexico, Vermont, New York and Belgium before he finally settled back in New York, busking on the streets and working in a picture frame factory. A chance meeting with producer Daniel Lanois at a photo shoot led to a record deal. From his legendary debut, the rootsy Living with the Law (Sony, 1991), through the aggressive Din of Ecstasy (Sony/Work, 1995) and polished Terra Incognita (Sony/Work, 1997), Whitley developed a devoted following. His unorthodox musical path continued with the intimate and stark Dirt Floor (ulfTone, 1998), recorded in one day in his father's Vermont barn; the stripped down solo album Live at Martyr's (ulfTone, 1999) followed a year later. Most recently, Whitley collaborated with Billy Martin and Chris Wood of Medeski Martin & Wood on the sultry, understated and jazz-influenced Perfect Day (ulfTone, 2000), a collection of standards.

From beginning to end, Rocket House marks Chris Whitley's rebirth as a brilliant, innovative artist. The album is a culmination of the stark moodiness, intuitive lyricism and aggressive sense of purpose that have highlighted Whitley's past work, and it breathes and cries and begs you to listen. Just put it on with a good set of speakers and hear when it's like when a truly inspired musician hits his stride.

Tracklisting:

1. To joy
2. Radar
3. Chain
4. Say goodbye
5. Solid iron heart
6. Rocket house
7. Serve you
8. Little torch
9. From a photograph
10. Vertical desert
11. Something shines

ULFTONE MUSIC
JULY 24TH 2001

CHRIS WHITLEY – ROCKET HOUSE

WHAT THE PRESS SAYS...


For ten years the US Singer and Guitarist Whitley has been making us happy with formidable records. His seventh outing shows him again as a master of dense songs: warm, refreshing melodies and organic arrangements meet refined electronic snippets. Overloaded guitars, relaxed-sparkly grooves, smart strings and feathery grooves makes this a worthwhile listen. With passengers like Bruce Hornsby, Dave Matthews and DJ Logic, Whitley´s "Rocket House" takes off. (4-5/4)
AUDIO MAGAZINE

The Texan with the harsh voice and the original stringtwist proves again that he is unpredictable. After "Perfect Day", his phenomenal acoustic album with songs of the great blueslegends, Whitley surprises barely a year later with yet another 360 degree turn. The blues is still the root here but is enriched with hefty scratchattacks by DJ Logic. An interesting route that, despite guest stints by Bruce Hornsby and Dave Matthews, not entirely convincing. "Rocket House" has great moments ("Say Goodbye") but is in it´s entirety somewhat weaker than it´s predecessors. (M:7-9, S: 8, R: 6)
STEREOPLAY MAGAZIN

Whitley´s seventh album is hard to digest. Harder than the last three at least, that followed a consequent artistical concept. Psycho-trips to darker edges of the world had already been worked into some of his songs on "Living with the law". This time he seems to have aimed to redefine himself as psychedelic rocker of a new kind, The mixture of blues-rudiments and raga-rock, loops and scratches, lots of guitar-glissandi and heftily processed electronic effects is, aside from "Little Torch" and the ballad "Radar" real "un-easy listening" (4/3)
STEREO MAGAZINE

THE LONER
The nonconformist singer/songwriter from Texas goes his own way - taking no prisoners: from triphop-blues to electronica.
Do you feel like this, too? You just can´t hear it anymore, this musicianbabbling of new influences and developments, of the oh-so-revolutionary breaks in the own creation – and in the end you simply hold the eversame record by (insert any name here) in your hand. Chris Whitley does not speak that kinda mumbojumbo, even though he had all the right to claim he was stylistically open. Lately he was playing chamberjazz versions of his fave tunes from Robert Johnson to Lou Reed. On ROCKET HOUSE he is already somewhere completely different. Should we call it TripHop-Blues, what happens here? Electronica-Folk? CAN could´ve sounded like that, if they had ever chosen to change into the singer/songwriter field. John Martyn would be a candidate, if he was still as daring as in the past. End to the guessing. Let´s say what we know: Chris Whitley has written eleven magnificient songs, thrown them against the wall and put the pieces back together. Scratches, sounds and distorted voices spook through the tunes, on "Radar" Bruce Hornsby and Dave Matthews add their taste to the stew. Aside from this, Tony Mangurian, that also worked with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, is the anchor in the sea as intrumentalist and producer in these thrilling excursions into unknown territory. An unforgettable trip? For sure. The album of the year? Most probably.
(5)
MUSIKEXPRESS


Spat-out guitarpieces
The US-Rocker Chris Whitkey keeps on surprising: after more or less unaccompanied recordings he released the gripping, blues- and jazz-dripping "Perfect Day" last year. Now he went and did a fat production: "Rocket House" was produced by Tony Mangurian (Bob Dylan), Whitley´s daughter Trixie sings, DJ Logic takes clear rockstatements and melts them into a fascinatingly, eerie sound and Dave Matthews and Bruce Hornsby give their honors. Whitley´s fortes are still his spat-out guitarpieces and mystical voice. Strong!
KURIER AM SONNTAG, BREMEN

"Torn apart and then pieced together. It´s more a structure than a guitaralbum", Chris Whitley about the question whether he could describe how his new album "Rocket House" sounds. This hits the nail on the head, since the listener is awaited by eleven beginningly hard-to-digest songs that keep on growing with every spin. Based on blues-rock, the man with the charismatic voice and the enigmatic slide playing, made a record that demands everything from the listener. The opener is a perfect example for "Rocket House": Blues-rhythms enriched with loops and the well-balanced scratchwork by DJ Logic wouldn´t be for everyone if it wasn´t for that hypnotic beat that makes the song more than just interesting. For the relaxed "Radar", Dave Matthews, himself claiming to be a great Whitley-fan, plays some guitar and Bruce Hornsby gives it the extra touch with wonderful Wurlitzer-sounds. Fantastic melancholy spreads while listening to "Say Goodbye", the crashing "Solid Iron Heart" and the strange titletrack are everything but radiofriendly diet-meals. But Whitley made one thing happen: Even if his compositions sometimes seem fatiguing - they captivate the listener. And after the second spin many listeners will realize that "Rocket House" is a melting pot of interesting sounds that will not let you go.
WWW.CALLASONG.DE


With guests and DJ Whitley is once again shooting for the big time
Sometimes you need a little time out to make the quantum leap for your own thing. And some help from the outside. Chris Whitley needed a live-album and improvised covers ("Perfect Day"), to make an album that is the diametral opposite of his small comeback "Dirt Floor". In the choice of musical means, not always in the intimate gesture. And he needed a producer like Tony Mangurian (Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson) that could lead to new paths without keeping the trusted baggage of the long sole traveller stranded by the wayside. That a DJ Logic could place a few nice scratches here and there is far more relevant than the stint of Dave Matthews (his US-label owner) or Bruce Hornsby that could really do no wrong on the emphatically swinging "Radar".
"Rocket House", says Whitley, "is more a structure than a guitar-album". That it is his guitar, that glues the album together – with acoustical chording on "Solid Iron Heart", as a chainsaw-endless-lick on "Chain" - does not have to be a contradiction. The most conventional is "Say Goodbye", that feeds his lyrical clichees with stadium-pathos. Rather leading to the epicenter of "Rocket House" is the title track, with its heavy stop´n go loop that carries Whitley´s voice as well as some ambience. Or the phenomenal "Serve You": Whitley dueting with daughter Trixie, TripHop meets Gospel. Or the sad "From a photograph". Or the silent tranquility in the "Vertical Desert". (***)
ROLLING STONE

Roots in Loops
Dobro-specialist Chris Whitley counts among the most innovative singer/songwriters that come from the Blues but are not pulled under by it. He proves this once again with "Rocket House": a pulsating manifest of traditional roots-elements and urban loops, beats and scratches.
"Yes, it is my best album so far. An album that I´ve been trying to make for the past 20 years but never knew how." Chris Whitley speaks out what everybody, that has heard it so far, is thinking about "Rocket House". The 41-year old is proud of the record, on which he is putting the last finishing touches whilst we are on the phone. "It took a while until it started moving but then everything was flowing freely. Everything kinda came together. It was real fun, there was a kind of magic in the air!" This magic can be felt in each and every one of the songs. After the spartanically instrumented albums "Dirt Floor", "Live at Martyr´s" and the grandiose "Perfect Day", on which he was accompanied by the rhythm-crew of the NY Hammond-Trio Medeski, Martin & Wood, "Rocket House" reminds with its pictures somewhat of the Malcolm Burn produced debut "Living with the law". For the realisation of his TripHop-Country-Blues-Roots-Rock-Ambient Soundscapes Whitley assembled some friends in the studio that could not come from more different areas. Tony Mangurian, a kindergarten-friend, that has meanwhile been working with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, makes sure that his beats attach the songs to earth while the keyboardist Steve Barber defies gravity with his flirring sounds and punctuated loops. "Steve is a phenomenal arranger. He´s worked with Joe Zawinul but has also played with Keith Richards", Whitley appreciated Barber´s flexibility. DJ Logic, a hip-hop scratcher from the Bronx, the Indian tabla-master Badal Roy, that worked with Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman, the former Stones- and Beach Boys- background vocalist Blondie Chaplin, US-Megastar Dave Matthews and, last but not least, Whitley´s daughter Trixie refine this melange of traditional roots-rock and modern electronic sounds.
Whitley, that is travelling between New York, Belgium and Dresden, where his fiancee lives, has always had a crush on computer-sounds. On "Dirt Floor", he serviced the Kraftwerk-tune "The Model" as a banjo-version. Where is this passion coming from. The trail leads to Belgium. In the eighties, the Texan was thrown into the European Techno- and EBM-mekka, where he played a while with different coverbands. "For my American ears, German and Belgian electronica-projects always sounded exotic, but aside from that I was fascinated by how emotional and powerful they were." Aside from the many musical influences Whitley connects his time in Belgium mostly with the birth of his daughter. The now 14-year-old Trixie lives in Belgium and has made her own name as Techno-DJane Tadpole. Trixie sings background vocals, on the amazingly beautiful "Serve You" for instance. Who is expecting Whitley´s sound to be mainstreamed and mellow by so much family happiness, is entirely wrong. "Rocket House" doesn´t miss the edges that one is used to by his latest albums and, mostly, from his powerful live-performances. His strong physique can be felt throughout. "I am also a singer/songwriter but I´m getting tired of that milieu. I love bodily, progressive things, sometimes also quiet stuff. Lastly it´s the balance that matters. When I play, everything comes from the guts and I hope you can feel that, too. Another singer/songwriter dying hooked to his guitar, no thanks!"
This power and physical presence can also be felt on the archaically sounding predecessors of "Rocket House". Were these, reduced to the minimum, albums some kind of a catharsis, after Whitley had reached a dead-end street with his Led Zeppelin and Pearl Jam alike sounding records in 1995? "Firstly, I had been looking for a way to be able to make records after all. It was just not possible to cost a lot. But I always dug simple things, no matter if it was "The other side of Bob Dylan" or solo-recordings of Thelonius Monk. Maybe the rule that everything had to be cheap led to a catharsis. Maybe."
Whitley had his head so free and clean, that it was possible to make a grandiose record. It might sound high-headed but maybe in a not-too distant future "Rocket House" will be named in one breath with "Pet Sounds" of the Beach Boys, Miles Davis´ "In a silent way" and "Dummy" of Portishead as a milestone of it´s own.
BLUE RHYTHM MAGAZINE


Even on his seventh outing, Chris Whitley is still able to go new ways. The 11 songs, that got produced by Tony Mangurian (a.o. Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan), show a seldom-heard richness in the singer/songwriter. Whitley keeps on experimenting with unexpected guitarfragments ("Chain") and the many nuances of his voice. On top of that there´s scratching offerings by DJ Logic, a vocal guest-appearance by Whitley´s daughter Trixie (on "Chain" and "Serve You") and grandiose special appearances by Bruce Hornsby & Dave Matthews on "Radar". "Rocket House" sounds rough, homogenic, flowing and driving. A highly-complex, soundstructurally-densified epic by a real songwriter genius, a real milestone in Chris Whitley´s discography! (******)
IN MUSIC MAGAZINE


He redefined himself and his music with every album and hasn´t made it easy on the fans to follow him. Chris Whitley has been refusing to be categorized, he rather plays, like he once said "psychosexual, socio-spiritual love songs that hope to fuck with stereotypes". His career has been equally rollercoaster-y. The born Texan started out on his debut "Living with the law" with bluesy roots-rock, surprised on "Din of ecstacy" with noisy Grunge and turned full circle with a sparse, stripped-down to the bone sound on "Live at Martyr´s".
On his phenomenal seventh album the singer, guitarist and songwriter navigates into yet another new position. With the aid of producer Tony Mangurian (Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson), DJ Logic on the turntables, his singing daughter Trixie and the colleagues Dave Matthews and Bruce Hornsby as guests, the 40-year-old creates a very contemporarily arranged Electric Blues, that is inspired without any fears to touch new realms. Adherent to this, Christopher Becker Whitley uses Scratching-Effects and Sampling-Snippets from the Hip-Hop Camp on the original opener "To Joy (Revolution of the innocents)" and connects them to Blues-sounds in the heritage of a Jimi Hendrix. "Vertical Desert" starts off with a rhythm-track like we know it from Techno-Songs; "Radar" was enriched by spherical Sci-Fi Sounds from the electro-sector. The final cut "Something Shines" feels like TripHop with it´s swell- and spherical sounds.
WOM JOURNAL

A musician like a box of pralines: you never know what you´re gonna get, but it´s always good.
Chris Whitley let his hair grow out. Now he looks a lot like Feargel Sharkey. Now Whitley´s songs sound just as burned out as Sharkey always was. That´s about the only similarity between those two – Sharkey was a chainsmoker, Whitley´s songs sound like it. No idea why that comparison strikes my mind. Chris Whitley is something like the prototype of a singer/songwriter, just like one would always imagine. Or better: just like one would wish. Introverted ballads, drowned in self-pity meet broken, songpearls played with numb aggressiveness, played by a man that you really buy it from. The songs on "Rocket House" sound honest to the mark, amazingly instrumented but not easy to digest. With the support of Dave Matthews and Bruce Hornsby Whitley created his most unaccessable work to date that has almost no similarity to its predecessor "Perfect Day". "Rocket House" hits. Straight through the heart. And how many records in this world can that be said of? (8)
VISIONS MAGAZINE


RIGHT BEFORE EXPLOSION
Chris Whitley, 40, Texan with Cherokee-blood, chosen New Yorker, part-time Belgian. Always made it difficult for himself and others. 1997 the Music Giant Sony dropped him after three CD´s – not commercial enough, too good for the Big Business. The grandiose songwriter fought his way back on backroads. Sung three records full of crude songs of sheer isolation, so minimally instrumented that only fans goutéed them. Now, on his 7th one, he plays with a band again, the US-stars Dave Matthews and Bruce Hornsby, DJ Logic and Whitley´s 14-year-old daughter Trixie appear as guests. "Rocket House" blends loops, scratches und backwards guitars with a psychedelic sixties-touch, hypermodern electro-sparseness with strangled desert-dust-blues. All the phases of his career, from the fullness and longing of his debut "Living with the law" to the addicted hurt of "At Martyr´s" is being condensed into the masterpiece. There is still sensual sensitivity in every note, every song threatens to explode any minute. But the desperation of the last records mixes with love, optimism, even joke. This is an order: buy it!!
(****)
FACTS MAGAZINE


After his brilliant debut "Living with the law" Whitley sort of drifted out of focus – with none of his following five albums could he catch up with the furious blues-elegance and song-lushness of that album. Also "Rocket House" is not getting there but it´s getting the closest of all of them. Instead of fuzz-orgies, flirry sounds and multishaded soundcolors created by the likes of Dave Matthews, Bruce Hornsby and DJ Logic convince this time. Whitley keeps his guitar playing to a minimum and let´s his rough arrangements do the talking. (4/5)
SOUNDCHECK MAGAZINE


Whoever saw Chris Whitley – disoriented and high as a kite – on his last tour, should be very happy about this very stringent, focused and surprisingly accessable CD. Under the producer wing of Tony Mangurian, the "voluntaries" Dave Matthews and Bruce Hornsby and his daughter Trixie, Whitley again reinvents himself. The foundation-building blues is only visible as a structure. On top of that he creates lush, ambient sound-constructions, in which he incorporates his guitar playing tenderly. Additional elements such as scratching, samples and frequency modulations underline the innovative way that Whitley is now going. On the other hand there is – not really normal for the sexy, lean man with the guitar – almost poppy passages with recognizable melody lines. The turning to three-dimensional thinking is opening new doors for his guitar playing as well. "Rocket House" is by far not the most extreme but nevertheless the best CD that Whitley has released so far.
INTRO MAGAZINE

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