Acoustic Music
Review link

Western Massachusetts attracts singer/songwriters like California grows fields of poppies: it's a combination of climate and community, atmosphere and light. Chris Pureka fits right into that mecca of musicians nestled into the hills surrounding Northampton and Amherst, and directly into the heart of what's young and fresh in acoustic music today.

Possessing a voice that's hard to pin down, but lies somewhere on the softer side of Melissa Etheridge and Stevie Nicks, Pureka captivates with a soft vibrato with a hint of sand rather than gravel. It's the kind of voice that draws you in because it is both tough and vulnerable - world weary yet willing to see things anew.

Pureka knows how to both turn a lyric and nimbly finger pick a tune on the guitar. Her debut CD, Driving North, captures those twin talents in droves. The songs here document a journey through a difficult relationship and a painful breakup, where the landscape of memory takes over. The sky is dark, the emotions are raw, and the memories are wistful and full of longing.

The CD opens with Silo Song, which whisks us along the road of secrecy and the difficulty to communicate freely and openly. Pureka's compelling voice and driving guitar kicks this project wide open.

The landscape remains dark and gray in the tune 3 A.M. It's in the early hours of the morning when you know that you've been chasing that elusive someone who you just can't get out of your mind. Loneliness never sounded so good.

Burning Bridges reads like a short story detailing love and regret: and then she leans over and lifts off your glasses and the next thing you know you're tangled and guilty and you've got a head full of liquor and perfume.

Reprieve provides just that - an instrumental piece with Pureka on guitar without the vocal. Her wonderfully deft fingers cave out a tune that speaks as eloquently as her voice and lyrics about the land of pain and regret.

While the landscape is dark, and there is plenty of sorrow, and failed love and connection abound, Driving North is far from melancholy. The title itself, like the driving force of Pureka's guitar, implies movement forward. There is a brightness in Pureka's voice and a vulnerability in her lyrics that imply a willingness to try again - to do it all over again, in fact.

Pureka's sound is fresh and new. Her songs unfold like beautifully written short stories - you want to hear about the journey rather than the destination. Chris Pureka has a brilliant career ahead of her. Driving North is a magical beginning.

Indie-Music.com
Review link

I imagine the best way to experience Pureka is live. At its best, folk music slits your wrists and makes you glad that it did. It's personal, and it hurts. But people love it. Kind of a curious genre that way.

And if indeed the criterion of great folk is in its capacity to wound, Pureka is great folk. The vocals are deep in tone and mighty in the breadth of their range. As Pureka's guitar heavily strums through these tracks, her voice careens above, soaring at just the right times.

The photographs in the liner notes of Driving North capture barren wastelands of heavy snow under grey skies. This wasn't chosen randomly. They were selected to match the overtones of the music, and do so quite nicely.

The lines that follow the music are sober recognitions and honest laments. Driving North can feel oppressive, as its cynicism is unrelenting. However this is not a record to be tossed on carelessly. It a record that must be listened to only when one is ready - when one's emotions match those of the artist. Given this caveat, the album succeeds by wallowing in despair and providing companionship to anyone who feels the same. Writes Pureka:

This is a story of burning bridges and allowing time to pass
This is a story of forgiveness an breaking things in my hands
This is a story of understanding you can't choose who you love
And this is a story of soft skin and rats in the walls

(From "Burning Bridges")

This is Pureka's second recording. As opposed to the intimate bedroom production of the first record, Driving North is a big step away from the direction of lo-fi. However, the album could not in any way be called sleek or glossy. Rather, the production gives the feel of a perfect concert with great acoustics and no audience or background noise. Lost from the first record is every breath between words and the static. Gained is an airtight recording which puts nothing in the way of the music.

That being said, the overall feel of Driving North is of very natural, organic vocals and guitar work. Whether or not the loss of lo-fi is a good thing is debatable, but now, thanks to Driving North, fans will get to see another side of Pureka and decide for themselves.

Ginger Beer
Review link

'I've got skin like Birch Bark...I guess it's too late, to protect myself from this...but you've been building these walls for a long time, it's not that I didn't know but you'd flash me another smile as you'd lay another stone. And I still fall for that.' Driving North - Chris Pureka

Chris Pureka: sweet indie singing, folksy playing, guitar woman. This is music that is genuine and sincere. The profound emotion that we are expected to believe Norah Jones delivers but actually fakes too well, in her admirably smooth, but uninventive voice is truer here in the voice of Chris Pureka. The kind of musician you want to hear busking you home on the tube, on a Friday evening after a heavy week.

This music is easy listening for anytime, specifically effective when Vivaldi or Bach seem too foreign and you need some colloquial language to focus on. And focus is something you depend upon, because Pureka's lyricism in songs like Burning Bridges is all to easy to miss: '...well you can't just pass along the pain that comes around. You'll go dizzy until you fall, and I know you didn't mean to let me down but you let me down so hard.'

The singer's album is essentially one long lament and beautiful with it. Most of the songs have to do with love, losing love and being left with painful haunting memories. Singing to us of heart feeling pathos we believe in:

'...Your attempts are illusionary but you don't even know it...so maybe you learned it from your family, maybe that's your best excuse, you could use some New York city, you could use your own talk show host. Because I'm drowning in all that you're not saying.' Silo Song

Collected Sounds
Review link

OK the first song's intro sounds almost exactly like "Buildings and Bridges" by Ani DiFranco, but luckily once the voice hits we are relieved that this is not just another Ani Clone.

Though I would go so far as to say that if you like Ani you'll probably dig this recording. In fact, fans of Melissa Ferrick, Melissa Etheridge, and Tina Schlieske ought to check out Chris Pureka as well.

Her voice is gutsy and powerful but at the same time, comforting. It's got a very appealing whisky sound to it, which is especially present on the slower songs. Her guitar prowess shows on tracks like the instrumental "Reprieve"

This is a nice collection of well-written songs with interesting melodies and clever lyrics. This is a good choice whether you want it for background music or to really sit (or lay) down with headphones on, the lyrics in hand and really get into it.

Stand out songs: You know what? I can't even pick one because they're all equally good. OK, gun to my head, if I had to pick a single..."3AM"...no "Porch Songs"...no, "Cynical"...yes...that one...see, it's hard? But that's my final answer. I think.

Just a note: I just lent this CD to a friend at work and by the time she had heard the second song she had already ordered herself a copy. Now she's going crazy waiting for it to show up (I let her borrow mine again so she'll be OK).

IndieFocus.com
Review link

"A Songwriter's Songwriter"

If you're looking for an artist with an extensive list of references, then we've found her. Chris is a name that others in the singer/songwriter industry have on their lips along with exultations, so don't be surprised to hear kudos from the likes of Pamela Means and Peter Mulvey. And one listen will let you in on the secret instantly.

While Pureka already showed amazing talent with her 2001 self-titled release, you can note a maturity and confidence has occurred during the three year hiatus before her 2004 release of Driving North. Her choice of instrumentation and lyrical lines that accompany her acoustic strumming are a masterpiece. Her lyrics speak of honesty and intelligence while her guitar technique is write on the money. Blend it all together along with the pure smoky voice of jazz clubs and bars and you've got it.

Performing Songwriter Magazine

A folk troubadour in the style of Ani DiFranco, Chris Pureka quickly captivates with her skilled guitar and rapid-fire lyrics. "Maybe you learned it from your family / Mix in a little of the Midwest / You could use some New York City" she sings in opening track "Silo Songs," a tirade against the puritanical elements permeating much of America. In "Grey," Pureka paints a somber picture with "a saffron day," an evening train and "the periwinkle sky...just the night in disguise." She completes the impression with the mellowing mantra "Everything eventually turns grey."

The entire album puts a novel's worth of imagery into every song. But the standout is "Porch Songs," an anthem about crossing the vast expanse of this country. Rest-stop coffee, serendipitous wrong turns and "saving quarters for the toll roads" conjure up images of road-wizened travelers, and resurrect memories of summers past, youth and freedom.