Chris’s musical journey began when he was about 10 years old.  A new, little music store had opened by his house in St. Charles, MO.  They did not have a lot of money growing up so it was a big deal for his parents to buy him a guitar, a case, a lesson book, and lessons.  The only problem was after they paid in full, he went back for his first lesson and the shop was gone…so he was on his own.  He taught himself to play and through the years he made it a point of playing with others that he thought were better than him musically.  (Which he insists was not hard to do.)   He was inspired to play better and learn as much as he could from them and move on up the ladder to the next level.

He will never forget the first time he played with a few guys strumming acoustic guitars (kumbaya my lord), that was all it took to get him hooked. His uncle, Max Kilburn is where he got some of his talent. Max was asked to play guitar for the Porter Wagner show at the Grand Ole Opry. At that time Porter ruled country TV and radio. He turned them down because of personal reasons at the time. It would have been great to have video of him playing with those guys, but he was happy just playing country and bluegrass with the local musicians down around Springfield, MO.

Chris remembers listening to the Beatles on his tiny transistor radio at the bus stop growing up and late into the night when he was supposed to be sleeping.  He switched to the bass early on and although he can play some guitar still and actually still has a couple, bass is his primary instrument.  Paul McCartney, Leland Sklar and, of course, Stanley Clarke were a few of his idols growing up and he patterns much of his playing from Paul and Lee, or at least tries to.

He played with a few local bands early on but after high school (1972) he answered an ad to play in the house band at Tantara Resort and got the gig.  He played 5-6 nights a week, did some partying at night and as they say “rode the rich guys boats” all day.  Rick Sale was the keyboard player/ leader and one of the most talented players he ever worked with.  He learned a ton from Rick until he passed away several years ago from cancer.  He played with the “Tantara Sunz” at Tantara for about 5 years.  He traveled on the road from Chicago to New Orleans and ended up playing at the Marriott on Canal Street. They hired the band for two weeks and ended up keeping them for two years.  As Chris states, “After that I married my awesome wife Wendy, without whom I could not have done half of all this” he came back to St. Louis/St. Charles to get off the road.  Back then he played with Fred Pierce, Bob Kuban, Jimmy Queen, Felix, Bone Daddy and the Blues Shakers, and finally with the Arbogast Band for the last 6 years.

He played with the Arbogast Band until Jan 2012.  The band grew from a little three piece R & Blues band into one of the top rock groups in St. Charles County.  He is very grateful to have played with such talented players such as Mark Arbogast, Harold Draper, Joe Donahue, Greg Bishop and others.  During this time Chris and his partner Gene Carroll of Serapis booked most of the music/entertainment for the city of St. Charles. It soon got to be too much for them and they retired from that in 2010.

Chris began filling in for Butch Wax several years ago and loved it.  He began playing full time with the band in January 2012.  He is looking forward to a lot of fun, good music and his next step up the musical ladder!

Somewhere over the Rainbow – Judy Garland
Long and Winding Road – Paul McCartney
Whets Goin On – Marvin Gaye
Stevie Wonders songs – almost all of them
Steele Dan songs– most of them
Jimmy Hendrix – Dolly Dagger and allot more
Beatles – most of them too and there were allot!
Led Zeppelin – most of theirs as well
Walkin on Sunshine – Katrina and the Waves
Would I Lie To You – Eurythmics / Annie Lennox
There are just too many great songs and groups to name ten…sorry