Connor Christian & Southern Gothic Are Home on the Road

Country Rockers on a Never-Ending Tour
By: Julianne Cassidy

Connor, then Princess, to Connor Christian & the Morningstar Revival, to then nixing the Morningstar Revival and replacing it with Southern Gothic, subsequently resulting in: Connor Christian & Southern Gothic.

Nomadic-artist Connor Christian was born in Los Angeles, and roamed South Korea, Indonesia and Belgium before he was even a teenager. And at 14 years old, he was a bona fide runaway, tromping the globe even further, from Florida to Africa, even including a brief stint in West Philly. “I traveled around, did the homeless musician thing for a while,” says Christian.

Young and eyes blind with wanderlust, no matter where Christian was, he was invested in music. “It was really easy to travel around and just be in cover bands,” says Christian. “Make enough money just to live, yes, that was much easier when I was younger.” Yet, that gypsy lifestyle becomes less appealing with maturity, and consequently, brings a revolving door of band mates.

In 1996, Christian “settled down.” Returning to a past haunt, Georgia was saturated with deep memories, including his first bar gig at only 12 years old, at The Wreck Room. “I’ve been here ever since,” says Christian. “It was a community that’s been apart of me for a long time, so I finally put down some roots.” It is also where his band.

Christian, Shawn Thacker and Joe Abramson recorded the first Southern Gothic record, having been together for 8 ½ years. All Georgia transplants, except Thacker, Christian alongside Abramson from Washington, DC, met Jeff Spirko from upstate New York and Elena Martin from Russia. “That’s really when everything came together,” says Christian. “We’d been doing it for a long time, but once we got those two [three years ago], the five of us just gelled… it became a real band.”

Feeling like they’ve all been together a lot longer, each eclectic member holds an integral piece of their musical puzzle. The mastermind behind the guitar, fiddle, piano, mandolin,and banjo, is Spirko. “He’s kinda the catch-all guy, our band leader,” says Christian. As for Martin, “she plays others, but fiddle is her main thing,” and Abramson is bass, while Thacker is drums. And everyone, except Thacker, joins Christian for back-up vocals.

February 12th marked the release of New Hometown, a hefty 18-track, packaged with numerous bonus cuts and endorsed as their first label-release. Expanding national and international distribution, CCSG signed with NY indie-label Rocket Science Ventures [variety roster: Cyndi Lauper to Mos Def.] “Our goal for New Hometown was to really make this record sound like we do live,” says Christian. “If we can do that, then people are really going to get it.” New Hometown has since blazed five Billboard charts, most notably: #1 on Billboard Heatseekers, and #17 on Billboard Country.

(credit Jason Powell)

New Hometown fused their prior-Indie EPs, New Hometown 1 and New Hometown 2. “We’d always hoped to make this one record,” says Christian. “But on our own, (financially,) we had to break it down in pieces.” Now strengthened by a label, CCSG aspires to spawn an even bigger fanbase with this new release. However, they have not forgotten about their first entourage. “For the 2,500 who have the record already, we put some new tracks on there for them,” says Christian. “Then, the other 7 billion… they are just going to have to catch up!”

With John Briglevich [Goo Goo Dolls, Edwin McCain] as his producer, Christian enjoyed their partnership. “He was a nuts and bolts guy, an overall sound director,” says Christian. “Neither of us could have produced this record without the other.”  As for title-track, “New Hometown”, it’s a bio-tune, welcoming listeners into the gritty vagabond voyage of Christian and his Southern Gothic comrades. “The first verse is about my journey to get there,” says Christian. “The rest is me traveling through the country, living out of the van and doing the hard part of getting your music out there.” Which the latter is, as Christian further explains, introducing the public to who you are and letting them know what you’re doing.

With 18+ songs, New Hometown bears witness to the raw highs and lows of CCSG. It also exposes the superior musicianship of each member. Although Christian holds sacred responsibility for penning most in the past, this album was not only a change for graduating to a label, but also a change for rare co-writer opportunities. “Jeff [Spirko] brought the skeleton to, ‘Only Need You,’ which is probably the best song on the record,” says Christian. ‘My Salvation’ was shared with an old buddy of Christian’s in Arizona, and he also visited Tennessee for co-writes. “It’s cool to have some people to play with this time, it was a big change,” says Christian. “I think going forward there will be a lot more, especially with Jeff [Spirko.]”

And forward is the only place CCSG is headed. However, Christian acknowledges his past, and the trudging, at times stuck-in-the-mud process of ultimately finding his band, but not necessarily his sound. “I try to go by my own path musically, but guys like Elton John were really big for me (‘Tumbleweed’),” says Christian. “Growing up, all us guys as teenagers are also all into the hard rock stuff and I still take a lot of that with me too.” Christian proudly believes CCSG brings the raspy rock ‘n roll feel to dirty country, attributing that same intense Hard Rock from his yesteryear.

Christian himself has metamorphosed from a solo-project: Connor, to a crackling rock-steady band: Princess [including Thacker and Abramson], to then Connor Christian & the Morningstar Revival, thus settling on Connor Christian & Southern Gothic. “We made a record under Princess, but then were asked “politely” (by an established NYC band, Princess) to change our name,” says Christian. “Princess was pretty much the beginning of this band, so we’ve been adding to it since 2004.” And in regards to sticking with Southern Gothic, “it’s been on TV now,” so CCSG they will stand.

Sparked by Tennessee Williams, and inspiring Southern Gothic literature, Christian feels their name finally appropriate. “I felt like when we were singing, a lot of that [my readings] came out,” says Christian. “Especially on our first record, Southern Gothic.” The South continues to rage on in their latest release, New Hometown, as well.  For their debut single, ‘Sheets Down,’ CCSG also released a music video (currently #1 for the third week on CMT Pure 12 Pack Countdown), directed by Mil Cannon [Usher, John Mayer, Pink.] “We felt like it (more than anything on the record) offers a clear idea of what we really sound like,” says Christian. “What a live show with us is like.” Further noting a disclaimer, that it’s albeit, “a lighter version of their live show.” CCSG hankers to collectively produce something that no one has ever heard before.

Ruggedly referred to as, “Outlaw Country,” by CMT, Christian says, “it’s a pretty fair assessment.” Having toured with and/or opened for a myriad of diverse acts: Zac Brown Band, Willie Nelson, ZZ Top, Foreigner [and many more], CCSG holds no audience bias. Whether thrown into a Pop Country, or British-Rock jungle, they want the audience to determine what kind of music they play. “Southern Rock, Blues—Bluegrass, we do all of that,” says Christian. “But if you ask me, we are a rock ‘n roll band, but, with Redneck tendencies.” Adding, “we do use our banjo, and fiddle a lot… yet, we’re bringing a rock ‘n roll attitude to that party.”

Declaring that live shows are important to CCSG, is an understatement. If they’re not recording, they are grass-rooting on the road. “We treat every night like an arena,” says Christian. “People really dig that and respect that about us.” Vowing to “tour relentlessly,” CCSG are ready and willing to tour with anyone who will take them.  “And when we can’t find anyone else, we’ll do smaller headliner shows, we’ll do whatever we have to,” says Christian.  Where they fear in studio that their live spontaneity will not be captured, that all explodes on stage. They’re voltaic.

Georgia brought CCSG together. Southern Gothic literature gave them a name. The Band:  Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson [and band] united them, as a touring family. Sharing in, and passing around Levon Helm’s Autobiography, “we really started to feel a kinship, the same way those guys did,” says Christian. “Working hard, getting loose and experimenting, not having to fit inside of a box plainly, those guys spread out into a lot of genres, just like us.”

As Billboards’ Best Bets 2012: Artist on the Verge, CCSG are thirsty to play for “huge” crowds. “We are all willing to pay our dues, but we’ve been doing it for a long time,” says Christian. “We wouldn’t mind being a household name in short order.” And if it’s up to them, a household name they will soon be. On to the next city!