Let’s kick the weekend off with a jam! Â Pump this one up and sing it loud.
“Skyscrapers” is inspired by the #EckhartTolle book A New Earth, which I’ve read (to my newborn kids) or listened to at least five times.  The music is inspired by #ManuChao, another favorite who really doesn’t release enough music these days.
I’m on all the instruments except for the killer bass by Chris Singleton. Â There’s also some cool backing vocals from Kerry Jones, Jeramy Lamanno, John Kell and Adair Cates.
As the hurricane rolls in, today’s song is fitting, I was originally gonna post it as an end of summer song. One of my favorite recordings (because of the classical and electric guitar parts), Outer Banks is a very old song. Â I wrote it my freshman year at Appalachian and then re-wrote it for the Carolina Songs album.
It features the MasterPlan, Jason Peeler, Chris Singleton and John Kell and perfectly reflects the conflict of leaving everything behind to move to a quiet place at the beach. Something all of us working folk can relate to.
Today’s song is about the snow silencing the city and walking around falling in love while taking in the stillness of it all. Â Written in Asheville but it is perfect for Atlanta. Â Because when it snows here, everything shuts down (unlike NC).
I’m especially proud of my drum part on this one. Â I’m not considered a “drummer” anymore (since 9th grade), so I’ll take any bright spots I can get. Â Â Thanks for listening!
I wrote this on my anniversary a few years ago and luckily it turned out to be one of Adair’s favorite songs! What seemed to be a quick and simple little song turned out to have some legs. You gotta love it when that happens.
I’m playing all the instruments except for John Kell’s sax, which gives it a bit of a Van Morrison feel. Â Adair’s singing backing vocals with Rob Sankey, John Kell and me. Â The song also features Ringo, my scruffy little dog, singing along to my harmonica at the end of the solo. Listen closely to see if you can hear it.
Thanks for listening!
Ringo with Mozart in the backgroundView all Chris Cates albums on iTunes here.
“Are you crazy, crazy, crazy in love or are you just crazy?” #8 changes styles again and picks the pace back up with a little southern rock guitar thrown in.
I finished this song in a job trailer in Nashville, Georgia (wishing I was in Nashville, TN) while building a six acre, one megawatt solar farm.  I put some pics of the job trailer below to show how hardcore it was.  Usually I’ll get a pretty nice one, but when you are in an extreme rural area, sometimes you gotta take what they give you.  Recording in this thing at night in the middle of nowhere can actually get a little scary, especially when it’s raining and you’re not sure your truck can make it down the half mile mud pit between you and the highway.  Needless to say, I made it out (with this song in tow).
I also figured I’d put another pic of Joy since the baby pics seem to increase my blog traffic times three. Â Thanks for listening!
Who’s ready for some smooth easy listening? This song sounds like wearing a velvet coat and having cocktail.  Thanks to John Kell’s sax, the bass line and my meandering guitar, we were really able to create a certain vibe.  Kind of a Burt Bacharach meets James Taylor’s ‘JT’ album kind of feel.
The words are about thinking back to a special September night a long time ago.
“It was great, it was tragic, a slight of hand mixed magic, we reached out but we couldn’t grab it, now it’s back and then gone again”
Featuring me on drums, bass, guitar, synths, strings and vocals and John Kell on sax.
Mastered by Bomb House Recording in Morganton, NC. Â #bombhouserecording.
Mozart listening to mixes in the studio late at nightClick here to listen to or buy the entire album.
This one has been my favorite song of mine for a few years now. Â I love the four on the floor bass drum and of the course major seventh chords that I have a proclivity for using. Â This happens to be one of my better drum performances too, I’m not a polished drummer these days so I’ll take any bright spots I can get.
The words are about change and looking ahead. Â I wrote this one when we were just starting to make a move. Â We were living in Asheville spinning our wheels and knew we had to make an upward move. Â Atlanta was not yet a sure thing, we were exploring all of our options (I of course wanted to move to Las Vegas which is not a practical family decision).
“What will we be doing in August and September, Â will we look back to this moment right now and remember”.
This song also has my favorite line I’ve written:
“The square root of Joy is Love, divided by two and it’s us, geometrically in perfect touch, we fit together like a glove”.
The song used to be called ‘Geometrically in Perfect Touch’ but since we had our twins and named one Joy, I had to change the name of the song to give her some props.
Joy, showing some metalClick here to listen to or buy the entire album.
The title says it all. Â Thanks for listening and your support.
Even though I only played about 20 gigs in 2014, I sold more songs and albums than ever.  I’ve got a brand new album called “Life’s a Love Song” that will be out in the next month or so and three more in the hopper, so hopefully that upward trend will continue.  Especially now that I have #twins to support.   That said, check out my eleven albums on iTunes  (search Chris Cates, Chris Cates & the Master Plan or  Parakeet Nelson).  Building 6 mega watts of solar farms a year is cool but I would much rather be writing and recording.
And of course, you can always hear 500 of my songs for free at  chriscates365.com.  Being listened to is still more important  to me than selling music.  (Not the best business model I know)
33.808570-84.395268
Welcome to Chris Cates.com. I'm an old school independent artist with lots of albums, songs, solar panels etc. This site tries to encapsulate what it is I've been doing since I played my first professional gig at 13. I post a song of the day occasionally from my somewhat excessive original song catalogue and I'm constantly recording new material when I'm not building solar farms, trying to play golf or tennis or taking care of my new twin girls.
 Also available on Spotify, Tidal and all other online retailers.
Chris Cates .com 