The album Shortside wishbone is but a small sample of Chris Chaos' work. Chris started playing guitar at the age of ten. After his grandmother heard him trying to play her old Gibson mandolin. Although he had no idea how to play it he did know that you were supposed to "tickle the string" real fast. So he did. She was amazed that he was able to pick the strings so fast, even though his attempts made no musical sense. She told his father, "get that boy a guitar" ! "He's got something, I'm not sure what it is but he's got it". Like many young musicians Chris spent his teen years annoying his parents and the neighbors! We understand law enforcement visited his parents garage quite a few times! In fact they got so tired of getting calls and then having to respond that they just pulled the squad car into the driveway and using their cruiser's bull horn they would say, " turn that music down, and keep it down!" His first band in Junior High School was Black Lightning. Chris played (like many others his age) a Les Paul copy. His love of electronics shown through when he re-wired it with Gibson parts, including the Peter Frampton extra middle pickup! He even went so far as to cut the top amplifier section of a Fender Princeton away from the lower speaker section so he could have a separate amp head and speaker cabinet. Stripping the naugahyde covering, sanding, then staining it to create a one of a kind unit. He was always experimenting with new ways to get different sounds, sounds he couldn't afford to buy. It was at this time he started trying to write. Where as the guitar came fairly easy the writing did not. The early writing attempts started as Morrison like poems. Junior High School poems slowly gave way to songs filled with teenage angst. We won't say that teenage Chris was angry but... Playing cover songs was o.k. but what he really longed for was to create. Create songs he could truly say, "That's mine I did that" ! Sabbath, Deep Purple, ZZ Top, The Stones, Clapton, Elvis and many others contributed to Chris' style. He states " Once I heard Elvis on a recording say, "Hold it fellows, that don't move me lets get real gone for a change"! That was when I new deep in my soul music was what I wanted to do with my life. Its gotta move me !" Chris' troubled youth led him toward the darker side. Something still evident even in his current works. Such as "Call'in out the devil" Track two on his Shortside Wishbone debut album. A song about living in the fast lane, bucking the odds, & self destruction..."I was drivi'n so fast / I didn't notice that the light was red / I had uh bottle in my hand / And uh pistol to my head..." Track one a song in the vane of Seger's feel like a number, but on steroids! Chris explores the day in and day out frustrations of working for the soulless corporate America. "Cut my dreams short / You dam alarm clock / Uh job you like / Well is it just talk ?! /Forci'n yourself / to get outta bed / Getting to work and your wishing your dead / Slavi'n away for your daily bread / Always looki'n for uh way out!" All though the darker side is always calling, Chris has been lucky in that he has finally found and married his soul mate. "My life line that I can follow back to the light." Once while she was away during a phone call they both realized, "Man I got it bad!" Hence track four, "I got it bad" was written. "Take its roots and a tree will fall / No gasoline and my cars gonna stall / Without the lightning / There's no thunder / Without your love, baby I'm going under.." Even still we all get the blues sometimes. Track five is a melodic bluesy number, "Oh I tried" when you feel frustrated and just plain worn down. Guys, we all love that special someone in our lives...but sometimes they turn on us. And it's not always our fault. Track eight "Two legged dogg" a song about a woman scorned. "She thinks I'm a two legged dog / Without uh heart no brains at all / Maybe she's right / And maybes she's wrong / But I'm her man handy when the nights get long / She thinks I'm uh two legged dog." All the tracks on this album are worth owning. My personal favorite is Track seven, "Shortside Wishbone" a dark expedition into the life of an unnamed pschycopath. Although I think Chris refers to him as Shortside Wishbone. "Uh bad seed / To an evil child / Uh mad dog / Justa runni'n wild / Uh mistake from the day he was born / That's uh page from history that shoulda been torn.." Listen to the writing Chris Chaos lays out. I think if your like me and you sometimes hear the darker side calling, you too will appreciate this album. "It's Gotta Move Me" Chris Chaos