Chris Rice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chris Rice

Years active	1996–present
Genres	CCM/Folk
Labels	Clumsy Fly

Chris Rice is an American songwriter who works in the Contemporary Christian Music, contemporary folk and adult contemporary genres with a style similar to David Wilcox and James Taylor. He became a recording artist as well in 1996 after signing a contract with Michael W. Smith's record label and releasing his debut album, Deep Enough to Dream.

1 Biography
2 Trivia
3 Discography
4 Singles
5 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years

A native of Maryland, Chris Rice grew up as the second of four sons born to Christian bookstore owners. His parents and other adult mentors influenced Rice's Christian faith and his early work with youth and college students.

Having taken only three years of piano lessons as a child, Rice did not aspire to a career in either music or student work. But frequent invitations to speak and lead music at his church's youth group events, and leading weekly chapel services at a local Christian high school, led to more such invitations throughout his college years at the University of Maryland, Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana, and Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. While leading music and coaching high school soccer teams he began writing songs. He holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Communication.^[1] What began as weekend and summer work with youth and college students soon turned into a full-time career during his twenties and thirties.

For those two decades Rice spent his time as an itinerant speaker and songwriter/musician, playing for high school and college conferences and camps nationwide. This schedule prepared Chris for his career as a signed recording artist, touring the country with a full band.

[edit] The career as a songwriter

Rice's songwriting career began in the mid-'80s, after moving from his Washington, D.C., home to Nashville, Tenn. During that period several of Rice's songs were recorded by other artists, including Kathy Troccoli and Terri Gibbs. Rice's "Welcome To Our World," an original Christmas song since recorded by Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant and John Tesh, moved Smith to urge his new label, Rocketown Records, to sign Rice as its first artist in 1996.

[edit] Solo Artist

With the help of Monroe Jones' production skills, Chris Rice recorded Deep Enough to Dream for a September 1997 release. Past the Edges followed a year later.

Deep Enough To Dream, Rice´s first album

At that time, his investment in students not only required the bulk of his time but also a great deal of his energy, which made his career as an artist a bit of a juggling act. Before the release of his next studio album, Rice realized his need for a change and asked Rocketown to release Smell the Color 9 without his involvement in marketing and promotion. The decision gave him time to rest, recover, and recognize his limitations. He declared, "I wanted to take some time to pull myself out of the public world. I’ve found that being a ‘celebrity’ taxed me of a lot of things I need for the day-to-day of dealing with students. That public work brings fans who adore me much more than I’m worthy of and in greater numbers than I’m used to. There are people who give a lot of weight to what I say and listen to my songs and scrutinize my every word. There’s a lot of pressure with that."

Smell the Color 9 was issued in fall 2000. This album was one of his most successful ones. It stretched his musical boundaries, by taking him from a folk-leaning songwriter into a pop-driven artist. Most of the tracks are less folk-influenced songs than previously: The Face of Christ is a shuffle-rock song about serving the less fortunate, based on Rice's encounters with the homeless. Rice talks about passing faith to the next generation in Sailing With Russell, another song with a strong Bobby McFerrin influence on it. Two ballad-kind songs appeared: Belong, taps into the human desire to belong, and points the listener to consider how a connection to God can fulfill that, and "Home Tonight," which takes the prodigal son's point of view, remembering how good things were at home with his father. The album's cover art (a man on a unicycle balancing on a high-wire) is a visual play on Rice's own balancing act, between being a well-known recording artist and an everyday person with an everyday life . The title track is an honest and thoughtful reference to the often difficult process of finding God.

In 2001, Rice surprised his fans with two piano-only instrumental releases that showcased a different side of his musical and arranging talents, not to mention his fondness for old hymns and Christmas songs. The names of the albums were The Living Room Sessions and The Living Room Sessions: Christmas. They were given these names because their songs were recorded on Rice's own living room grand piano.

With his sixth album, Run the Earth... Watch the Sky, released in March 2003, Chris again joined the production talents of his longtime friend and collaborator Monroe Jones, a partnership that’s garnered more than 1 million unit sales. In this album, there were the modern folk leanings reminiscent of David Wilcox and James Taylor, but also Rice’s newfound admiration of earthy but radio-friendly pop in the vein of John Mayer and Travis. The album’s first single, The Other Side of the Radio featured sports driving guitar and percussion. Me and Becky recalled classic rock sounds from Chris’ own adolescence. "A lot of the record mentions my childhood or my teenage years so it fit to reach back into the earlier sounds from the ‘70s in some of the background vocals and string arrangements", he says about it.

These four studio releases (plus the two instrumental releases) fulfilled Rice's contractual commitment to Rocketown Records. Following his departure from the label, Rocketown released a couple of Chris Rice collections.

In June 2004, the hits collection Short Term Memories was released. This album chronicled his trajectory with most of Rice's hits (Sometimes Love, Deep Enough to Dream, Smellin' Coffee, "The Other Side of the Radio" plus others). There were also a few other minor hits (Face of Christ, Home Tonight). New studio cuts included Go Light Your World (a Rice original first popularized by Kathy Troccoli), a new acoustic mix of Untitled Hymn, and Mama Prays,.

A second hits collection, Snapshots: Live and Fan Favorites followed in February 2005. This album featured notable omissions from his last album, such as Naïve, Questions for Heaven, and Me & Becky,. There were also rarities like the hymn-inspired Nothin' from Rocketown's Exodus project and Calling out Your Name from the tribute to Rich Mullins. Billy Joe McGuffrey was a VeggieTales song from the Jonah soundtrack. The live tracks were in a mixed style. The album featured an early career performance of Prone to Wander as well as a performance of Hallelujahs, recorded during GMA Week 2003 and featured on Rocketown'sHallelujahs CD later that year. The rest came from 1999's A Night at Rocketown. The concert tracks represent the best of what was left off of the first compilation.

[edit] A new record label

The year 2005 marked a major turning point in Rice's artistry. Leaving Rocketown Records at the end of his contractual agreement, Rice signed with independent label Eb+Flo Records, and made a marketing and distribution agreement with INO Records. INO's distribution through Sony BMG afforded Rice a new direction for marketing and distribution, no longer limiting his music to Christian radio format. His fifth studio release CD Amusing, released in August 2005, included love songs and other life topics, as well as some songs about his faith. For the first time in his career, Rice released radio singles to AC and Light Rock stations around the country, the first single being a light romantic song entitled When Did You Fall (In Love With Me?) which reached #8 on the Pop AC radio format, and enjoyed Top Ten status throughout the summer months of 2006, solidifying Rice's presence on AC radio.

With Rice's success on the AC radio format, Rice made sure not to leave his roots behind him, by releasing a vocal hymns album, Peace Like a River: The Hymns Project, in November 2006. The CD was available exclusively through Family Christian Stores and online at FamilyChristian.com.

[edit] Trivia

Some fans were intrigued with the meaning of the song title Nonny Nonny. It is a nonesense phrase similar to "La-dee-dah!" used in old English folk songs and poems from the 15th and 16th centuries. (Sometimes "Hey, nonny, nonny!" or "Hey, nonny, Ho!") It's also found in Shakespeare's writings, contemporary songs in folk style from the 1960s, and in one song in the musical Singin' in the Rain. Rice chose the phrase to lighten the song and bring a nursery rhyme quality to the chorus. It also became the obvious title for the song.