Open Mic Night - feature performer Chris Peck November 6, 2006

Open Mic at the Hotel Utah

The Utah is not your everyday open microphone. It attracts performers at all stages of their careers: from seasoned veterans to first-timers. It attracts music fans who know a good thing when they see it.

The musicians who come regularly don't come just to get a little "stage time" - they come because of the community that calls Monday at The Utah home - and the musicians that come in for the first time eventually start to come regularly...

So come on down this monday, have a beer, bring your guitar if that's your thing, and sit back and enjoy.

** Featured performer - Chris Peck **

Chris Peck grew up on a horse ranch in Marin County, north of San Francisco. His musical youth carried him through rec hall shows and outdoor acoustic festivals. He is indebted heavily to the pantheon of retired rockers hiding out in Marin. After rubbing elbows with and jamming alongside members of the Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison, Journey, and the Grateful Dead, Chris thought he was something special.

However, at age 18, Chris packed up and spent five years in the five boroughs of New York City. These new environs quickly set straight his nascent big-headedness. He earned a degree in music composition at N.Y.U. and gigged around the tri-state area. During this rich period, he played with subway fixture Joe Murphy, songwriter Amy Cooper and Soul singer Alia Marie.

In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Chris constructed and operated Oak Studios, a performance and rehearsal space on a noisy Puerto-Rican block on Grand Street. This project bourght many blessings and one curse as Chris gave himself some nasty tendonitis while building the place.

Since the wrist pains first appeared in 2000, Chris limited his musical output mostly to recordings, playing guitar, bass, drums, and electronic instruments through the magic of overdubbing. Notable projects from this period include a score to the Naftali Rutter film, The Death of Captain Myrage (2002) and his support role on Americana Singer David Gluck’s I don’t Know How to Live Here When You’re Mine (Arc Records 2003).

With Chris’ return to California in 2003, two shifts took place. First, He returned to stage performance (?). Being remade as a poet, mc, and dancer by incorporating pre-recorded tracks. Secondly, he discovered San Francisco's wealth of holistic body knowledge and spiritual mysticism.
Newly tapped into this pocket of California culture, Chris is physically on the mend and involved in many corners of the Bay Area’s rich music scene. His two most recent recordings are The Garden Sings (2005) and newiebittagoodie (2006) with his band, The Crymuscles.

Currently, Chris can be heard live in his solo incarnation- “Chris Peck the Town Crier,” or playing guitar the Greg Scott Band.

http://www.myspace.com/chrispeck

Official Website: http://theutah.org