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| Featured Artist Link REALLYMUSICRADIO presentsCHRIS HICKEY
Chris Hickey's first record release was a 1978 EP as part of the punk-pop band "The Spoilers." The new CD, entitled "release," arrived 27 years later.
Chris Hickey was a Spoiler for about five years. The band released three records and performed hundreds of times in Los Angeles and up and down the West coast. Hickey recalls, "depending on what day it was, we sang either a lot like Johnny Rotten or Bruce Springsteen -- the main thing was to struggle to sing with neck veins bulging..." Some weren't bothered so much by the less-than-subtle impersonations of their heroes - The Los Angeles Times called them a "dark-horse candidate" of the L.A. club scene but others were less forgiving. In 1985, Hickey sang with an acoustic guitar and his own voice on his first solo album, "Frames of Mind, Boundaries of Time." CMJ called the record a"...sweet yet pungent, pure semi-political acoustic guitar record with a simplicity that's startling." Hickey followed with 1987's "Looking for Anything." "Anything" was picked by the Los Angeles Times as one of the top ten L.A. independent releases that year and Jim Higgins of the Milwaukee Sentinel named the song "Langston Hughes" as one of the best songs of the year. During this same period, Chris joined voices with Randell Kirsch and LuAnn Olson and formed the three-part harmony, folk-rocking "Show of Hands." After a stairwell performance (good reverb) for MCA executives, the band signed with IRS Records and released the eponymous "Show of Hands." Rolling Stone called their harmonies "beautiful... interesting... original" and cited Hickey's "Time Passes" as evidence. The band became one of the first U.S. acts to tour China and toured throughout the U.S. and Canada with Indigo Girls, The Go-Betweens, and Loudon Wainwright III. Hickey began playing around Los Angeles on his own and eventually formed "Uma" with drummer Andy Kamman and bassist Andy Stoller. The group recorded songs over a three-year period, at Sonora Recorders in Los Angeles, which would later become the foundation for their Refuge / MCA Records debut "Fare Well." Stoller departed and, after initially contributing background vocals, singer-songwriter Sally Dworsky joined up. "Fare Well" was released in 1997. The band toured with label-mate Jonatha Brooke (no corporate sponsors) and, later, with singer-songwriter Chris Whitley. |
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