Chis Laterzo - West Coast Sound

Chis Laterzo - West Coast Sound - 2015

from hyperbolium.com

There’s always been a note of Neil Young’s high, keening tone in Chris Laterzo’s voice, but on his fifth album, backed by twanging alt-country, the notes are more plentiful and apparent. That’s not a criticism, it’s a compliment, as Laterzo doesn’t copy Young so much as sing original songs in a style that echoes Young’s work from the ‘60s and ‘70s. You can also hear flavors of Shannon Hoon in his high notes and Chris Robinson in his tremelo, and the loping rhythms of Laterzo’s American “cowboy rock” also connect him to the cosmos of Gram Parsons. The album’s title track finds Laterzo surrendering not just to the natural elements of his adopted California, but also to the the country-tinged rock that once flowed freely from Laurel Canyon.

Laterzo sings lovingly of his former neighborhood, “Echo Park,” memorializing the people, places and lifestyle of an important point in his life. Dan Wistrom’s pedal steel is particularly potent on this track. Laterzo is settled in Los Angeles, but having grown up in Denver, Boston and Brussels, he harbors a wanderlust that’s satiated as a touring musician and as the rambler of “Tumbleweed.” The road beckons more darkly as an avenue of escape for “Someday Blue,” with a tempo and acoustic guitar that suggest the despair of the Rolling Stones’ “Angie.” Despair turns to resignation in “Drag,” as Laterzo concludes you can’t negotiate with a closed book, and resignation turns to spite in “Subaru,” despite the lyric’s claim to the contrary.

There’s a wistfulness to Laterzo’s singing that merges memories with realizations. The backward glances of “The Bradbury” and “Chaperone” aren’t nostalgia, they’re the slightly stoned, or in the case of “Chaperone,” fantastically dreamed, building blocks of experience. The latter is stripped down to acoustic guitar and snare drum, and played at a tempo that perfectly paces the sleepwalking vocal. Laterzo often sounds lost in thought, as if his thoughts are extemporaneous and still forming as they’re being related; it’s a powerful way to draw listeners into songs. The album is low-key, but Laterzo’s reflections are bright and engrossing, and will entice fans of Young, Jackson Browne, the Byrds and other canyon dwellers.

01. West Coast Sound
02. Tumbleweed
03. Drag
04. Someday Blue
05. Echo Park
06. Subaru
07. The Ray Bradbury
08. Chaperone






+@192

Chris Laterzo - DriftWood

Chris Laterzo - DriftWood - 2004

from CDBABY

Recorded in his Venice, California living room studio, Laterzo's third album 'Driftwood' is an unaffected blend of rock, folk, and country. Laterzo accomplished what he set out to do on this self-produced project- an album that is unadorned and honest, with every jagged edge exposed, leaving behind a distinctively homegrown air.

From epic and electric ("Pandemonia" and "The Wind") to solo piano and guitar ("Ghost on the Road" and "How Much Love Did you Burn?") to country-folk numbers ("Good Woman" and "Driftwood"), the sound is stripped down with arrangements that don't muddle the song's intent. The performances on 'Driftwood', and the choice of instrumentation- acoustic and electric guitars, pedal steel, piano- capture and articulate the organic spirit of each lyric and song.

01. Good Woman
02. The Wind
03. Driftwood
04. Starlit Milky Way
05. Pandemonia
06. Ghost On The Road
07. Navigate Me Home
08. How Much Love Did You Burn?




++ @192

Chris Laterzo And Buffalo Robe - Juniper And Pinon

Chris Laterzo And Buffalo Robe - Juniper And Pinon - 2009

Los Angeles based singer-songwriter Chris Laterzo has recorded a number of well received albums since arriving in California. Originally from Colorado’s Front Range and with roots in such varying places as Belgium, Massachusetts, Santa Fe, and Washington, D.C. Laterzo is an artist who emphasizes melody and lyric, and whose music evokes a sense of the restless spirit and open road. Chris Laterzo’s style of music is best described as folk-rock, alt-country- even American cowboy rock.

Juniper and Pinon (2009) is the fourth and latest album by Chris Laterzo. Co-produced by Laterzo and Jeff LeGore, Juniper and Pinon consists of nine Laterzo compositions and a version of Elton John’s ‘Holiday Inn’. The album features Laterzo with his band Buffalo Robe, and also includes several solo acoustic numbers. Basic tracks for the album were recorded at Sonora Studio in Glendale, California with overdubs being recorded in a variety of locations. “Many of the vocal tracks and acoustic numbers were recorded in a suite at The Joshua Tree Inn and a house we rented for several days in Joshua Tree. The high desert offered an ideal setting for making the bulk of this record, and we were able to capture some great moments.” Laterzo said.

01. Hacienda
02. Red Dust
03. Those Were The Days
04. Juniper And Pinon
05. Peculiar Fate
06. Misfit Child
07. Home On The Range
08. Woman (after all of these years)
09. Holiday Inn
10. Crowded House Blues
11. Senorita Sunshine






+@192