Chris Castle's new album takes flight

Want to go?
• WHAT: “Last Bird Home” CD Release Party
• WHEN: 8-11 p.m. Jan. 13
• WHERE: Rupp’s Place, 75 Whittlesey Ave., Norwalk
• INFO: facebook.com/chriscastlepage or dirtsandwich.com

Chris Castle is, without a doubt, one of the last troubadours. A tall, lanky figure with a permanent, patient sort of brooding, he’s often armed with a full cup of coffee, taking a long drag off a half-smoked cigarette.

“Last Bird Home,” his latest record, is now available to the public. The warm, organic sound is a trademark of Rust Belt Americana, deeply rooted in the singer-songwriter tradition and surrounded by excellent players.

The album, in his words, is his official introduction to the world, and contains haunting lyrics, an army of talent and a sense of place that is at once specific and transcendent.

“That’s what we set out to do,” Castle said. “It stays true to the DIY songwriter.”

His focus while putting together the new record was to make it radio ready — which seemed to work, considering the album has begun arriving at radio stations throughout the US and Europe.

“This allows for a much bigger audience,” he said.

Last Bird Home
To record the album, Castle, his son Chase and The Womack Family Band piled into a van and headed to Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY.

The album features the likes of talented industry heavyweights, including Grammy-winning engineer Justin Guip (Levon Helm, The Black Crowes), Garth Hudson (The Band), Tommy Ramone (The Ramones), Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan), Maud Hudson, Gabriel Butterfield (son of blues legend Paul Butterfield) and rising Americana group and fellow Norwalk natives The Womack Family Band.

With so many talented musicians on board, it seems like it would be easy to derail the project.
But to Castle, the collaboration served a perfect function.

“Collaboration is a great way to get the most out of yourself, especially when they [other musicians] know what you’re capable of,” he said. “It keeps you on your toes. There’s a certain amount of trust between musicians. New people and players bring something new to the table, and to the song.”

And of course, there’s no overlooking the surprises that happen along the way — little serendipitous accidents that seem to provide the last missing puzzle piece of a song, like Tommy Ramone’s mandolin part on “Bird.”

“Maud [Hudson] came in and sang vocals [on a song],” he said. “She interpreted the song very differently than we did.”

It took some tweaking, but after experimenting with laying down her vocals in different ways, they finally clicked as a ghost track on “Dirty Water.”

Though the recording process was fraught with pleasant surprises, he remained true to his roots.
“We wanted to sound like us,” he said.

Musical evolution
Tracing Castle’s musical genealogy is an interesting task, and it’s hard to know exactly where to start with a musician who’s been playing since he was nine years old.

When he was 15, he moved to Nashville, where he got a job writing pop songs.

“The pop songs were very formulaic, but I still see those initial fingerprints on what I do now,” he said.
After leaving Music Row and returning to Ohio, he released “Hollow Bones in Monotone,” which departed from the pop formula and returned to the skeletal elements of the song.

“It [‘Hollow Bones’] also marked an entrance into more idea-driven songs,” said Tony Schaffer (Womack Family Band). “It was more cohesive, more visual, more autobiographical.”

Castle’s songwriting has gone through an evolution, as well.

“Over the years, I’ve gotten more sure of my writing,” he said. “Now when I write, it means something. ‘Last Bird Home’ is a collection of what I feel are my strongest songs, meant for a wider audience.”

For Castle, part of the radio-ready mindset is knowing that he has found his place in the musical world. The places he’s seeking airplay for “Last Bird Home” are not your traditional pop or rock stations, they’re true blue Americana.

“They’re already looking for what we’ve got,” he said.

The sound of the Rust Belt
Both Castle and the Womack Family Band have found their footing in a tradition that once seemed long buried. But the roots music began to rise, and the sound that emerged couldn’t be easily christened as folk or country. It was something else. The music was at once true to self and true to place, regionally and ideologically. It was real Rust Belt Americana.

“I’ve figured out that this is the sphere I’m in,” Castle said. “To be yourself is the best way to cut through the noise. Otherwise, you get lost in the crowd.”

The music is, in some ways, a response to the culture that filters in from both coasts. Some of the biggest, brightest pieces make their way to the Midwest and settle in the Rust Belt where they swirl about, interpreted and responded to by area artists — artists who have baled hay, shoveled coal, stacked firewood and lived a life that many deem as “Midwest.”

Interpretations of our region vary, but often, outsiders take to viewing the Midwest — particularly the Rust Belt — as a sleepy, quaint, almost picturesque way of life. But as those who live in the area will tell you, its inhabitants are no strangers to hard work — or to the culture and traditions that have risen up amongst the other cultural rubble that has collected here.

Rust Belt Americana, then, has turned the key from the interpretation of and response to outside influence, shifting instead to spotlighting its own traditions.

“We are exporting our culture,” said Schaffer. “Rust Belt Americana is its own thing. It has its own culture. It’s growing. It’s more about what it is, what it could be.”

And the audience seems to get it, whether they’re watching Castle perform in Florida or New England.

“It’s beyond ‘You’re a great singer’ or ‘This is a great song,’” Castle said. “It’s more, ‘When I think of America, I think of this.’”

The "Last Bird Home" CD release party will be held from 8-11 p.m. on Jan. 13 at Rupp's Place, Norwalk. For more information, visit facebook.com/chriscastlepage or dirtsandwich.com.

In Tune
Chris Castle’s new album “Last Bird Home” includes a mix of brand new work, as well as older songs that have been reinterpreted. Here’s a look at the album tracks:
1. Lion in the Cage
2. Rest My Weary Body
3. All Kinds Of Time
4. Adelai
5. Bird
6. Trees Fall Everyday
7. Everywhere But Home
8. Dirty Water
9. Perfect World
10. Both Ends Of A Gun
11. Stumbling Stone