New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Blood, sweat, and guts. These are three of the core elements required of artists who set out to make music that's steadfast, honest, and true. And if you're going to make the kind of music that's embedded in the finest, deepest-rooted Southern rock traditions, then you better be ready, willing, and able to deliver the goods straight up, no chaser.
Arizona southern rocker CHRISTOPHER SHAYNE is expected to do just that with his highly anticipated debut EP, TEN HIGH, out today via Carry On
Music on all digital outlets. His band that also performs on the EP includes Dave Lansing (lead guitar), Mark Blades (vocals/bass guitar), Zachary Hughes (keyboards, vocals, guitar), and Trevor Hammer (drums) who has been replaced by drummer Eric Bongiorno for future live performances.
Videos for the EP's first two singles, "Pour the Bottle" and "Any Given Sunday," can be seen now on the label official YouTube page. The EP's first single, "Pour The Bottle," reinforces the raw songwriting talent of the golden-throated young vocalist while mixing hard-charging self-aware intent with good-time guitar riffing and instant sing-along choruses.
CHRISTOPHER SHAYNE knows this stratagem inside and out, having long traveled the crossroads where rogues, renegades, and thieves are tossed aside and only the best hard-livin' and hard-rockin' sound practitioners get to move forward. Fact is, the Phoenix-born, whiskey-tinged vocalist/guitarist is more than up to the task. "I want to deliver something that people out in the world have both heard and not heard before, in a way that everybody can grasp onto," Shayne explains. "That's my personal goal. As an artist, I want to take those ideas and really remind people what guitar harmonies and passionate vocals sound like in a real rock setting. I want to develop something musically that feels like home but is still kind of fresh."
Carry On
Music CEO Tom Lipsky says "CHRISTOPHER and his band are staking their claim as leaders of next generation Southern Rock, with blazing guitars and powerful vocals continuing the tradition of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd,
Molly Hatchet and Blackfoot."
As the holy grit and hellfire groove of TEN HIGH amply proves, SHAYNE and his band of road-dog brethren are more than the sum of what would happen if
ZZ Top and
Lynyrd Skynyrd dove headfirst into a Cuisinart together without missing a beat. "For the newer stuff, we wanted that old-school, AC/DC, HIGHWAY TO HELL kind of sound, so we stripped away some of the production layers to see what that would sound like," Shayne reports. "And what came out was music that's as raw and as human as possible. Making sure we had an extra tinge of soul in there too made it much more interesting in the rock setting we wanted this music to have."
Influenced by blues artist R.L. Burnside, the
Black Crowes, Blackberry Smoke, and the ultimate in southern rock, ZZ Top, SHAYNE brings an authenticity to his songwriting, blending his own life into relatable lyrics with a genuine nature truly appreciated by his fans. He has performed nationwide at
Phoenix Raceway and PBR Velocity Tour, along with providing direct support for The
Cadillac Three,
Molly Hatchet, Shooter Jennings, and more.
The music you'll find on TEN HIGH is as sincere as it gets. "There's a lot of room now for rock bands that wasn't there 2-3 years ago," Shayne believes. "I just want to hammer that point home and deliver something as real and as honest as humanly possible, in those veins. The fun is in the struggle and in the challenge of doing that.
Music can be anything it wants to be — but it has to mean something to you. Making that happen for our fans is something I'll be focusing on for the next handful of years, I think."
The songwriting growth and compositional muscle that are on full display on TEN HIGH place CHRISTOPHER SHAYNE squarely at the forefront of the next generation of rockers. And that's something you can raise a glass to… every day of the week.
