Chris Carmichael

Any serious discussion of musicians originating from this area who have made an impact or had significant achievement in their chosen field of music has to include Chris Carmichael. He certainly has the respect of his musical peers in Bowling Green and beyond. A violinist, fiddler and cellist who serves as a sideman and session player for an amazing who’s who of various genres, Carmichael seems to have found where he wants to be in the music business and also found recognition by the artists and music makers who avail themselves of his services.

With the abilities that makes folks like Tommy Johnson use words like “virtuoso” in their praise for him, Carmichael rose from the local scene to the road to frontman of a group with a major label record contract. When that success became fleeting, Carmichael found his way into what he feels he had spent his time preparing for, the more stable standing of a successful session player and touring musician.

That brought him back to the area last month as part of Kathy Mattea’s touring band for her November 18 show at Franklin’s Goodnight Auditorium. He’s also in many listeners’ radios and record collections; his recent studio work has shown up on award-winning and hit records by Martina McBride, David Ball, Sara Evans, Kathy Mattea, Al Denson, and Larnelle. Fans of the local recording scene can find Carmichael on recordings by Tommy Johnson and Moral Chain of Custody.

Chris Carmichael’s parents are from Bowling Green, and this is where they still live. His father, though, was an Air Force fighter pilot and travelled the world for 25 years, retiring in 1975. So Chris moved around while growing up. While living in Virginia, he started playing the violin. By the time his family next moved to Bowling Green, Chris had been playing for two years and wanted to continue. When getting training through the school system didn’t pan out, Carmichael met Betty Pease, WKU music professor, and studied under her from 8th grade through his second year of college (on scholarship with a major in violin performance).

By this time, Carmichael had been playing around Bowling Green with his guitarist brother at places like the Catacombs, with Bobby Baldwin at a regular gig at Fontana’s, and with Jeff Smith playing jazz standards. These experiences contrasted with his formal classical training. Carmichael said that his experience at Fontana’s was when he knew he wanted to seriously play music and write songs — his own music rather than the recital track he was on with his formal training.

Carmichael got a call from Bones Kalin in January 1983, which was an invitation for Chris to join Dixie Line with Tommy Hendrick and Tommy Johnson. He took it and hit the road, touring the U. S. and Canada for three years with Dixie Line. According to Carmichael, he learned a lot about songwriting from Tommy Johnson, saying “it made me aware that you could do something like that for a living” because of Johnson’s seriousness and discipline.

This effectively ended the Bowling Green era of Chris Carmichael, except for brief stints with the Screamers and the Flying Monkeys. The next move up came when Joe Savage heard of Chris, drove up to Bowling Green to the Holiday Inn (“the old Kona Kai Lounge,” said Carmichael) to see him, and snared Chris for his band. Carmichael played with Savage on the road for about two years in what some called an outlandish, circus-style glitz show; Savage utilized real wild animals as part of his shows.

Carmichael moved to Nashville in the late 1980s to get a writing deal, and he wound up getting a record deal. Carmichael and Anthony Crawford were working local gigs with a group called Wild Indians; at the same time, Chris hooked up with two guitar players which led to the formation of Fifteen Strings, a “hard rock with a violin” group that showcased and got a record deal with Atlantic. Fifteen Strings had a run of about three years. Chris was also staff writer at Warner/Chappel publisher in New York, during which time he hooked up with hit songwriters Robert White Johnson and Bill Como.

Both the record deal and the writing deal ran their course, and Carmichael said “things could have gone either way” for him. But Carmichael believes that all that had come before had prepared him for being a session player. With his abilities, the contacts he’d made, “faith in God and myself, and some good old luck,” Chris worked into the session world and became known in it. Artist and writing deals, Carmichael said, are “great but transient,” and now Chris has ended up where he says he always wanted to be — in the studio making music.

In the country music field alone, Carmichael has landed on several hit recordings. Among them, Sara Evans’ #1 hit “No Place That Far,” Martina McBride’s “Happy Girl,” Kathy Mattea’s “Love Travels,” and the latest David Ball album Play. On the contemporary Christian front, Carmichael’s strings have graced two multiweek #1 hits by Al Denson (“Take Me to the Cross” and “Be”) as well as the Larnelle album Unbelievable Love which won a Dove Award. Other recording credits of note include Marshall Crenshaw (including his new single “Television Light”), Jill Sobule, Swan Dive, B. J. Thomas, Twila Paris, John Elefante, Johnny and Donnie VanZant, Jeni Varnadeau, and Yuko Yamaguchi.

Of his discography, Carmichael says he’s proud of who’s seen fit to call him in to work on their projects. He has respect for these artists’ work, adding that “even the commercially successful ones are different and refreshing and of high quality.”

As a sideman, Carmichael has worked in the bands of Kathy Mattea (for whom he still plays and has also put tracks on her upcoming album) and David Ball (where he received praise from the Nashville Tennessean for his “blistering fiddle licks, high sweet vocal harmonies and a kinetic energy”). He performed September 24 in Washington, D. C. for the Smithsonian Institute’s tribute to Hank Williams, playing fiddle for Steve Earle, Kim Richey, Lucinda Williams, and Kathy Mattea. He performed with Allison Moorer at the Academy Awards on her Oscar- nominated song “A Soft Place to Fall” from The Horse Whisperer; he has recorded tracks on her upcoming second album as well.

Chris and Anthony Crawford still work together around Nashville (both are on David Ball’s Play and Tommy Johnson’s Pockets). He describes himself and Crawford, who also records on Pete Anderson’s label Little Dog, as “soul mates.” Carmichael produced Crawford’s second solo album Intentional Decoy.

Carmichael said he likes to “invest” his time in Bowling Green artists’ projects. He has twice been involved in Moral Chain of Custody projects with Tommy Womack and others. He was a prominent influence on Tommy Johnson’s solo album Pockets — co-producing, co-writing two songs, and lending violins and cellos that let this reporter to describe the album’s sound as “chamber country” in the September 1997 cover story.

Everyone hopes to find their place in the world. Talking with Chris Carmichael, one gets the impression that he has stepped into his. Good for him, and good for us. Find Chris Carmichael on the web at hometown.aol.com/skeebs15/myhomepage/index.html..

Don Thomason is a writer and musician living in Dunbar. Visit him at www.myspace.com/donthomasonmusic