Chris Webster & Nina Gerber
Cotati, California, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | INDIE
Music
Press
“Webster’s is an authoritative voice that manages to make existential angst, romantic confusion and spiritual longing sound uncommonly appealing. Each note she sings conveys a probing, acute sensitivity to the little complications of life and love, with a sexy edge to boot.” - No Depression Magazine
“Webster’s magic derives from those ineffable qualities of vocal grain, emotional nuance, timing and phrasing possessed by the truly great and moving singers of any style.”
- San Francisco Bay Examiner
“Webster’s magic derives from those ineffable qualities of vocal grain, emotional nuance, timing and phrasing possessed by the truly great and moving singers of any style.”
- San Francisco Bay Examiner
"The evening's real star... Gerber usually says little and lets her guitar do the talking. She is a not-so-underground legend. Her wide-ranging folk-country- jazz-blues stylings have backed dozens of performers on stage and record." - Oakland Tribune
"Remarkable accompanist... A star in her own right... Gerber's contribution is magnificent..." - San Francisco Examiner
Music fans around here certainly know both Chris Webster and Nina Gerber as two of the most skilled and artful musical talents we’ve had the pleasure of hearing. Webster’s voice is uniquely compelling while Gerber’s work on guitar is breathtakingly both beautiful and powerful. Together they are magic. Webster and Gerber join together for an exquisite evening of original tunes and tasteful covers-soulful ballads, jazzy tunes, and gorgeous folk.
Chris Webster is a very special singer. She’s can rock, she’s got soul, and most of all she can find the tiniest hints of emotion in any song and make it reverberate in our soul for a mighty long time. Also, she’s grown into a major league songwriter, whose lyric takes on love, lost love, and the general vicissitudes of life are at different times poignant, funny, introspective, and exhilarating. Stylistically Chris runs from country, pop balladry, jazz, folk, blues, and whatever she does she brings sensitivity, strength, and an emotional breadth that few singers can match. Of course, many people around here are very familiar with Webster as one of the lead vocalists in local super group Mumbo Gumbo. Guitarist Gerber has a long history in Northern California music performing guitar accompanying dozens of artists including Kate Wolf, Steve Seskin, Ferron, Dave Alvin and most recently Karla Bonoff. She is exquisitely tasteful as an accompanist on both acoustic and electric guitar. Together Webster and Gerber create magic like few others.
- Palms Playhouse,Winters, CA, Feb. 2011
"Tonight’s show features country/folk singer Chris Webster and legendary bluegrass/folk guitarist Nina Gerber. The two have played together many times over their 20-year acquaintance and talk to each other like old friends, yet nothing about their performance feels worn.
“Normally, Chris and Nina are both kind of shy. But when they’re together, they play off of each other, improvise, break out new material and jokes, cracking up each other and the audience.” Schaeffer says with delight.
Setting up on stage, the two musicians seem relaxed and happy, chatting with people in the front rows. Describing the full house as “snuggly,” Webster acknowledges that these shows are a labor of love.
As the first perfect note is strummed, all chatting falls silent. You can almost hear the rapture, everyone in the audience breathing softly so as not to disturb the sound. When the song ends, the crowd responds with religious fervor: thundering applause, whistles and cheers. A gray-haired woman clasps her hands under her chin and sighs. One man leaps to his feet, waving his arms in revival-meeting ecstasy." - Press Democrat, Sonoma County,May 2011
"Tonight’s show features country/folk singer Chris Webster and legendary bluegrass/folk guitarist Nina Gerber. The two have played together many times over their 20-year acquaintance and talk to each other like old friends, yet nothing about their performance feels worn.
“Normally, Chris and Nina are both kind of shy. But when they’re together, they play off of each other, improvise, break out new material and jokes, cracking up each other and the audience.” Schaeffer says with delight.
Setting up on stage, the two musicians seem relaxed and happy, chatting with people in the front rows. Describing the full house as “snuggly,” Webster acknowledges that these shows are a labor of love.
As the first perfect note is strummed, all chatting falls silent. You can almost hear the rapture, everyone in the audience breathing softly so as not to disturb the sound. When the song ends, the crowd responds with religious fervor: thundering applause, whistles and cheers. A gray-haired woman clasps her hands under her chin and sighs. One man leaps to his feet, waving his arms in revival-meeting ecstasy." - Press Democrat, Sonoma County,May 2011
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Chris Webster:
A career that began nearly two decades ago as a teen-aged lead singer for one of California's best know regional acts (Mumbo Gumbo), Chris Webster boasts a successful resume highlighted by four solo releases (Drive, Now Playing, Something in the Water, My Name is Christine) and one amazing traditional Bluegrass/Americana recording (The Webster's "10,000 Miles) with her sister Cassie and renowned guitarist Scott Nygaard. More importantly, she brings a pedigree rivaled by few. With astonishing power and passion, her voice reaches magical heights, yet effortlessly turns on a dime to deliver gut wrenching torch songs and gentle ballads. Combining elegance and grace with a foot-shuffling manner, Webster has a purity and beauty about her that is seldom seen and never forgotten. She can cut to the bone with tender, unrequited songs of love-gone-wrong then slap you upside the head with a fistful of lyrics and a take-charge melody that makes you step aside, stand back, and listen.
You can turn the wine to water, but you can't make me drink. You can ask me nicely, and I'll tell you what I think. You can sit real close with your hand on my leg. But before you touch that wheel, make no mistake...I'm driving, I'm driving.
Nina Gerber:
After carving a career out of what some might call the shadows, guitarist Nina Gerber is at last beginning to dare the light. Her first album as a leader, Not Before Noon follows two decades which brought her to prominence without ever placing her name on the front of an album cover.
Since her accompaniment of Kate Wolf first earned her recognition, her acute skills as performer, producer and arranger have continued to deepen. Her contributions to acoustic music have earned her a following as loyal as for the numerous high talents she has accompanied. Nina has a unique ability to completely free herself within an eclectic range of styles. Presented with folk, country, bluegrass, rock, or blues, she is able to fall into leads which have rare reverence for the true feeling of a song, always emphasizing taste over technical display. She seeks to express through her hands, rather than gain attention, and it is this integrity which makes her expressions worth intent listening.
That kind of intent listening will reveal Nina's melodic touch in more places than many realize. Nina has performed and/or recorded with: Karla Bonoff, Peter Rowan, Eliza Gilkyson, Nanci Griffith, Greg Brown, Lucy Kaplansky, MollieO'Brien, Rosalie Sorrels, Laurie Lewis, and many others. Her soulful enhancement of their music easily explains why several return the favor by appearing on Not Before Noon and Ninas live cd, Good Music with Good People.
That qualities of honest heart inform Nina's music should be of no surprise, given Kate Wolf's initial influence and inspiration. It was Kate's heart and honesty which inspired Nina to realize music as her calling. After seeing Kate perform in 1975 at a pizza parlor in Sebastopol, California - Nina's home town - Nina dared to set working with Kate as a specific goal, and by 1978, the goal was accomplished. Nina came to be an essential part of Kate's music, as she grew into being her accompanist and close musical companion. It was a partnership which lasted until Kate's passing in 1986, and in its effect, has lasted long beyond that.
Whether it's on her own "solo" CDs - collaborations with some of the folk world's finest - or producing, arranging, or performing with countless others, Nina continues to prove with her guitar that some of the truest and most emotional communication requires no words. Still, when combined with the voice of another musician of heart, the result is affecting in an unforgettable way.
"Nina's guitar style is wide and brave. As she glides thru this record project, she uses each of her guitars as if it's the one she was born to play. Acoustic or electric, she sounds beautiful, smokey, precise, full of the licks you love to hear.
Band Members
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