Crooked Roads
Love, Again
© 2003 Chris Dingman (807135264525)
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"Calls to mind Rick Danko of The Band." --Popmatters.com
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"Calls to mind Rick Danko of The Band... The listener can practically hear Dingman's heart breaking."
—Pop Matters
"Dingman cites a number of influences from Dylan to the Stones to Merle, but the ones who seem to influence his music the most are Gram Parsons and Nick Drake, arguably two of the loneliest artists ever. Dingman's songs have solitary written all over them. While beautiful melodies keep depression at bay..."
—Stylus Magazine
"Will surely become a major player in the roots music arena.”
--RootsMusicReport
"There's more than a bit of the ol' Uncle Tupelo chunk to the chords, riffs that are thick enough to grill... One hell of a throwback."
--Aiding and Abetting
SONGWRITER CHRIS DINGMAN'S CROOKED ROAD
Chris Dingman, Crooked Roads' singer and songwriter, grew up in Lyme, a small town in the New Hampshire countryside, population 1,000.
When he wasn't wandering the woods or drawing by himself, he was playing on the village common with the neighborhood kids. "We rode our bikes around a lot," says Dingman, "or we played war or football. Those were dangerous times, though. You had to be careful you didn't run into that flagpole in the middle of the common."
"We got one TV station--CBS," Dingman recalls. "And I don't remember any radio." For the time being, then, Dingman remained isolated from all the music that would later influence him.
All, that is, except The Beatles.
Almost on the day he was born, in 1964, The Beatles' dominance of the pop charts peaked. That week, The Beatles held the first five slots on the Top 100--something no other group's done. To Dingman, this is more than coincidence.
"My family wasn't religious. And I wasn't exposed to any mystical ideas, I don't think. But when I heard my mom's Beatles' records, I remember thinking if there is a God, He's coming through these guys."
Dingman's father was a musician and as a boy, Dingman would pick out melodies on the family piano. But it wasn't until he left home that he picked up a guitar. "I first heard Dylan's Freewheelin' the summer after I turned 21," says Dingman. "There was something ghostly in his singing. It seemed off-hand but incredibly tender. And he made you feel like you could do it too."
That summer Dingman also read D.H. Lawrence and Nietzsche. "Writers that stir up your whole body, not just your mind," according to Dingman. "That's around when REM's Murmur came out and that record turned me on too. I was in college at the time, but the summer I heard Freewheelin' made school seem beside the point."
Dingman eventually wound up in California, where he thought of himself more as a writer than a songwriter. "I think the effect that music had on me was so huge, that I didn't dare approach it. Or only very slowly. I could allow myself to write, but not songs. Not yet."
He wrote poetry instead, and filled thousands of pages of journals. He also wrote screenplays and optioned one to Warner Bros. After that he tried hard to keep being a screenwriter and to keep music on the side.
It didn't work.
reviews
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Dingman songwriting is inspired and heartfelt
author: Robert PierceLove, Again is one of those CDs that a listener really likes the first time it's played -- and, after hearing it the second and third time, ends up leaving it in the CD player for a month or more. I got it on a Friday, listened to it all weekend, and, now, I find myself waiting to leave work so I can get to my car and listen to it again. It's that good! Thanks for creating such soulful, honest music, Chris. I highly recommend this CD and artist.
One of the most impressive debuts I've heard in years
author: Scott, from Washington, DCA great new talent has arrived. Dingman is one of that rare and cherished breed whose distinctive voice is perfectly matched to the style and substance of his impressive music-writing abilities. As you listen to the different tracks, you'll find yourself sometimes smiling and sometimes wistful, but always grateful. When Dingman's name is on everyone's lips in another year or two, I know I'll be boasting that I had the foresight to buy his first CD when it was just released.