Chris Paulson was born in 1958 in Oakland, California, and grew up in the
San Francisco Bay Area. A child of the sixties, he started playing music in
garage bands before he was ten years old. He traded a broken 22 caliber
rifle someone had given him for his first guitar and amplifier. While still
in school he began racing motorcycles on the highly competitive Northern
California dirt track circuit. In his teens and early twenties he held many
different jobs, including grocery clerk, motorcycle shop parts manager,
grave digger, tree cutter, house painter, dish washer, bus boy, cook,
caterer, bread truck driver, ... but he never lost interest in music. In the
early eighties he bought a new guitar and started playing music again. In
addition to the sixties and seventies music he grew up listening to, he was
inspired by the late seventies' punk rock movement and started getting into
old rock'n'roll, country and blues. At the restaurant where he washed dishes
and eventually learned to cook, there was live music every night of the week
and jazz musicians such as Sy Perkoff and Mark Naftalin would perform
regularly. While living in San Francisco he started attending the monday
night jam sessions at the Saloon on Grant Avenue, performing there with
Johnny Nitro, Lisa Kindred and Gino Skaggs.
Chris went to Europe in 1987, just to have a look around, and ended up in
Turkey where he met his future wife. He followed her back to Germany and
began performing on the streets there. He started out busking in Wiesbaden
with just a guitar in the underground passages at the railway station and
soon moved on to the larger city of Frankfurt. There he became quite well
known in the growing street musician scene and began producing his own
cassettes and CDs, of which he has sold over 30,000 copies.
Chris's repertoire includes popular Folkrock songs from Paul Simon, Bob
Dylan, Don McLean and Neil Young among others, but also includes his own
songs in the same acoustic folk/blues/country/rock style; he only needs his
voice, a guitar and harmonica to get the audience singing along and enjoying
themselves.
In 1993 he won the coveted "Straßenmusiker des Jahres" (street musician of
the year) award from the German ZDF television.
He continues to perform regularly in Europe but also in the U.S.A., Mexico,
Australia, Brazil and Africa, and follows the summer seasons around the
globe, surfing and playing music. Whether he entertains solo or with the
Chris Paulson Band, his frequent concerts in Germany are often sold out. In
addition to regular appearances at European festivals, he performs at
private and corporate events.
Other quotes ..
Chris Paulson is the "1993 Street Musician of the Year" ZDF Television, Germany
Chris Paulson, the Eternal "Folk Singer" Frankfurter Rundschau, Germany
Of all the musicians, Chris Paulson is my favorite. His presence is a
glimmer of joy in many peoples lives." Clair Pender, Triad Magazine
"Chris Paulson creates a magical atmosphere with his music, that makes
people want to join in and sing along" Sylvia Meise, AOK Youth Magazine
"Chris Paulson is a gifted musician with a wonderful voice, and a style that
reminds one of early Neil Young. Well worth a listen."
Natascha Scheil, Yvonne Sitta, 5 Gramm, 2 Mark Magazine
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