Bear Rifle Records

Chris DeMay

::Words::

Few people know the value of few words quite like Chris DeMay. Pulling from his past life as a journalist, DeMay's deceptively simple songwriting sparingly describes poignant, instantly identifiable situations; drawing the listener in like a secret shared between friends

A veteran of alt-country powerhouse West of Rome, and a talented multi-instrumentalist, DeMay first began toying with the idea of a solo project during the recording of the band's second album, Drunk Tank Decoy, produced by Wilco alum Jay Bennett and released in 2005. Encouraged by Bennett, who recorded demos of DeMay's “Cowboys and Indians” and “Open Up Like Flowers,” DeMay released a solo debut, I Won't Be Me, recorded to tape with Wendy Schneider in 2007. Through his work with Schneider, DeMay also became involved with Slothtrop Records, Jason Mohr, Blaine Schultz and the More Barn project, a Neil Young tribute album and annual concert benefitting the Bridge School in California.

In 2008, the week of the fourth annual Kneel to Neil, DeMay assembled a group of friends and musicians for a brief rehearsal; leading up to what Amy Elliott of Fan-Belt.com would later name “some of the most scorching live music I saw all year.” Recognizing the immediate chemistry of the group, DeMay quickly booked a weekend at Shane Hochstetler's Howl Street Studios; and with another few hours of practice, his second album Bigger Than Small was born. The result is just as electrifying as the live set, with an immediacy and intimacy normally reserved for fly-on-the-wall footage – tempered by crisp fidelity and rock-solid performances – and a tenuous balance between the punk aesthetic of DeMay's youth, and the folk wisdom of his experiences.

Over the past few years, DeMay has quietly become an elder statesman for the Milwaukee music scene; maybe a bit more modest than many of his peers, but no less revered by the people lucky enough to call him a friend. Between his position at WMSE radio, wrangling volunteers and booking local bands in studio; his tasteful yet frenetic keyboard playing with the criminally under-appreciated Juniper Tar; and his seemingly haphazard assembly of backing bands, DeMay has a knack for building bridges ... and bringing the rock to knock them back down.

-Words by Allen Cote