About Chris...

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 From soulful guitar riffs to heartfelt lyrics, Chris aims for every piece of music to be crafted with love and dedication to serve the music he’s playing and glorify God with excellence. 

From Iowa to California to Nashville, Tennessee and now currently in Fort Worth, Texas, Chris’ journey as very active songwriter and a multi genre guitarist continues to grow and expand. In most recent years his time is spent writing and playing contemporary Christian and worship music; performing original songs in writers rounds around Nashville; releasing new music including with 'Revival Ranch' and even doing some scoring for short films which included winning best film score for the Victor Atkins short film 'The Market'. 

Chris was born and raised in the heartland of America, in the mid-west city of Iowa City, Iowa.  The only one of his 3 other siblings to pursue music, he recalls first being influenced by his older brother’s favorite music, such as The Beatles, Chicago.  While his mother’s love of Big Band and artists like Nat King Cole brought the tradition of classic standards.

Although his first instrument at an early elementary school age was Clarinet, it was the influence of rock bands at a young age that convinced him he had to play guitar.  Studying with Iowa local guitar prodigy Steve Johnston, Chris’ musical palate quickly grew and expanded to diverse rock styles.  Finding that whatever he listened to quickly influenced his playing, it was in college as a music major that Jazz began to drive him into new directions. One of his biggest influences to this day, Pat Metheny opened his ears further.  

During those college years, Chris was also playing guitar and leading worship for YoungLife while he began touring the mid-west in a R&B/Funk band, expanding the landscape of music. While touring in two bands Chris won awards for improvisation one of which included the Kansas City Jazz Festival and it became clear that expanding beyond the mid-west was well worth doing.  

Attending Musician's Institute in Hollywood put Chris in a place of high influence studying under world class musician’s to officially push him to reach deeper than ever.  After graduating he was honored to teach as a guitar counselor for a brief stint while playing in various bands around Los Angeles including a band he co-founded, ‘Common Ground’ which featured sax monster Jim Wheeler (Kenny Loggins, Slash's Snake Pit).  Around that time Chris got to work with and study under some top name studio musicians and personal hero’s of his including Dan Huff (White Heart, Amy Grant, Giant) and Jamie Glaser (Bryan Adams, Jean-Luc Ponty, Chick Corea, Manhattan Transfer) as well as study Composition and Arranging at Dick Grove School of Music.  

Chris has also studied pop songwriting and has co-written with songwriters including Kevin Fisher (Rascal Flatts, Sara Evans, Uncle Kracker); Jeff Vincent (Al Jarreau, Paul Lekakis); Rafael Moreira (P!nk, Christina Aguilera, Paul Stanley, Steven Tyler).  

In 2010, while a member of the rock band 'Nu Savant' showcasing in Los Angeles, they were fortunate to have their song ‘So Tired’ picked up for the Sony Television produced episodic show, ‘Damages.’  

In 2011 Chris that met Cliff Young while both leading worship together.  Cliff asked Chris to join his own group, ‘Cliff Young & Living Sacrifice’, an R&B/Jazz/Gospel/Christian Soul band.  With ‘Living Sacrifice’ they released their premiere album ‘Beauty is to Worship’ summer of 2014 which features Chris’ own composition, ‘Here I Am.’

Always working on developing his songwriting skills, In 2012 Chris released his first rock album as ‘Thief In the Night’ entitled 'Under The Influence' featuring power vocalist Johnny Rossa with world class extraordinary musician/guitarist, Rafael Moreira producing.   As Thief in the Night, Chris and Johnny also released an acoustic arrangement of the Led Zeppelin classic ‘Kashmir’ as well as two singles each featuring duets with Johnny and international artist Dilana, including ‘In Loving Memory’.   

In 2019 his primary focus in song writing became mostly dedicated to worship music and 2020, Chris began Revival Ranch Music and along with a team of talented song-writers, worship-leaders and musicians. They recorded the first 'Revival Ranch' worship album that released in October of 2021 and have been releasing music ever since.  

Besides performing in various bands including a Dave Matthews tribute band in LA, Chris has been a part of worship teams in Nashville, Tennessee; serving at the Franklin Prayer House and writing and recording for Krissy Nordhoff’s ‘Writing Worship’ community. Prior in California he served at Harvest Rock in Pasadena, Expression 58 in Glendale and has also been a part of Christian Assembly's worship team in Eagle Rock, California under the very humble but legendary leadership of veteran worship leader and virtuouso guitarist, Tommy Walker.  

Chris has been very active in playing Gospel & Contemporary Christian music performing in churches and venues in Nashville, New York, Pennsylvania, California and more.  “Giving back to the One who created me and put these gifts and talents in my heart and soul is my passion - I LOVE it!” says Chris.  “I wouldn’t be anything without God and the amazing wife, family, friends and mentors He has surrounded me with”.