CHRIS BURROUGHS : TRADE OF CHAINS

1. Trade Of Chains
2. Walking The Length Of Zion
3. Signs Of Life
4. Skeleton Radio
5. Mile Wide Road
6. Sounds Of Silence
7. Too Many Criminals
8. Raining On New Years
9. Airplanes Landing In The Snow
10. Here Today
11. Trade Of Chains (Reprise)

Label : New Rose Records

Released : 1991

Length : 43:36

Review (Last Call Records) : With a lyrical mix of vagabond philosophy and social commentary, Chris Burroughs has been called a cosmopolitan drifter with a great command of language. Burroughs was born and raised in New Jersey, and attended Rutgers University as a journalism student before emigrating to Arizona. There he put together The Nationals, and spent two years playing every nightmare gig from Bisbee to Flagstaff before moving to Los Angeles. " We would do something like eighteen one-niters in a row, and only play three cities," says Burroughs. A tip from a publisher friend in L.A. led to the release of the critically acclaimed West Of Texas on the now defunkt New Rose label in France, followed one year later by Trade Of Chains. With brief stints in bands like Yard Trauma, Losers Club, Onlys, and Misfit Toys, for years he split his time between Tucson and Los Angeles. While wearing out the engines on a small fleet of antique cars, on long drives Burroughs would scribble lyric ideas on their dashboards and headliners. Settling back in Tucson for a variety of reasons (cheap rent, love, the L.A. riots), Burroughs has spent the last few years relatively close to home. But plans to tour Europe and the US are in the works, both with his band and solo. " I'm starting to love playing solo," says Burroughs. " People do listen to lyrics, and I've got a lot to say. It's different when I play with a band, a different energy. We play loud, and I lose myself in it, knock into things and dent my guitars and barely catch my breath. They're two different events, they're both fun." While staying true to the vision of his first two albums, the tone of " Clutter " (his third album) is broader. The violent cities of America and the expansive deserts are still the places that Burroughs inhabits, but this album finds the singer/songwriter looking past his personal passion for wandering, searching for a bigger cultural landscape. The album was recorded between Election Day 1992 and Independence Day 1996, produced and engineered mainly by Harvey Moltz (Giant Sand, Continental Drifters). Option Magazine says "Burroughs has a great command of language, timing, drama, and smarts. His on-the-road experiences are not all fun and games, and his songs have a convincing edge of truth." Goldmine says " Burroughs is never sloppy or haphazard in his finely detailed, often narrative snatches of American life." Billboard says "S tern voiced rocker crafts some memorable tunes." And East Coast Rocker says "Burroughs plays and sings his stories with near-divine inspiration...songs are intensely personal and yet they do not reek of self-analysis like the work of some singer/songwriters."