Car Rides and Songwriter Beginnings: Chris Acker

Seattle native and New Orleans singer-songwriter Chris Acker returns to Oklahoma City to share his evocative, funny, insightful, sad – all the things! – songs at a house concert on Friday, June 20.  Anticipating Chris’s arrival, we chatted with him about a range of topics – recent books he’s read, vegetables and herbs to plant that thrive in New Orleans’s buggy setting (answers:  arugula and pole beans), what he does for fun, and the outlook for his favorite baseball team, the Seattle Mariners.  We also talked about his musical influences and beginnings.    
            Curious Pair:  What led to your interest in music? 
           Chris Acker:  It was a lot of what my parents would play in the car.  My main thing is I remember road trips to Idaho from Washington.  Those were my earliest memories of really falling in love with a piece of music. 
             CP:  What kind of music did your parents listen to?
           CA:  They listen to a lot of songwriter stuff.  If anything, I notice as I’ve gotten older, I didn’t really grow up on The Beatles or anything like that or even Bob Dylan.  It was a lot of Nanci Griffith and Emmylou Harris and that kind of stuff.  My dad really likes female singers particularly.  And Paul Simon, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor.  But not a lot of big rock bands or anything like that.
            CP:  Are these folks, would you consider them your early influences?
           CA:  Yeah, those were the early ones.  I had a big Dylan phase in high school.  I felt like it was a turning point when I got into Bob Dylan because you had really heavy gnarly songs that were heavy topics, but then there would be this more tender side, and I really became a romantic through him.  When you listen to him, it informs so much other stuff.  Like John Prine.  Growing up, my dad played him a lot.  But it made more sense after Dylan.  Same with when I got into Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, all the classic ‘70s songwriters.  I feel like Dylan was my first obsession when I was probably fifteen or sixteen.  Oh, and I would say this band Against Me.  They were like a folk-punk band.  They were acoustic.  They’re great.  They were a really big influence on me.  I saw them live like ten times.  Going to shows, they were really inspirational because those were my first experiences of having a really transcendent show experience.  They were kind of the reason I picked up an acoustic guitar. 
            CP:  Did you take lessons?
         CA:  I took one lesson.  I just learned on YouTube.  Which is a cool resource.  You can learn anything there.  I also learned a lot from friends.  My friends and I started a band, and we were all beginners, so we learned together a lot. 
           CP:  What was the name of your band?
          CA:  Dennis.  Just the name Dennis.  Which is a name nobody in the band was named.     
           CP:  Was that with Sam Gelband?
          CA:  Yeah, yeah. 
          CP:  Do you mind telling us a little bit about your connection with Sam?  You guys went to high school together in Seattle.  You were playing gigs at a record store in Seattle and getting paid in records.  Fast-forward fifteen years, you’re both in New Orleans and making great music. 
        CA:  One of the coolest parts about doing this has been the friendships but that one [with Sam] specifically.  That’s been the strongest through-line because we got into playing music together.  He plays in my band – he plays drums on all those records.  And sings.  And then he has his own projects.  We still share stuff with each other all the time.  We don’t necessarily write tunes together but still collaborate pretty heavily. 

Chris Acker plays an Oklahoma City house concert on Friday, June 20.  For more information or reservations, contact [email protected] or 205-616-5009.