Chris & Carla

 

What began as a means for Chris Eckman and Carla Torgerson to showcase the songs of The Walkabouts during promotional tours in advance of new Walkabouts albums evolved into a new format for band leader Eckman to channel his songwriting. The pared down setting of a vocal and acoustic guitar duo afforded Chris & Carla the opportunity to delve even deeper into the song’s characters and subtleties; to cast the songs that were being recorded by the full band in different and often more delicate shades of color and light. And eventually Chris & Carla became a group in its own right, with Eckman writing new songs specifically for the duo.

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The duo’s debut album Shelter for an Evening, released in 1993, a live collection recorded in Germany during one of the aforementioned promo tours, was followed by a series of studio and live albums with guest appearances by members of the UK’s Tindersticks, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Danny Barnes of folk-bluegrass-punk pioneers The Bad Livers, members of The Walkabouts, and other notable musicians. C&C’s final album was 2007’s Fly High Brave Dreamers.