Buffalo Rising Online

Jul 30th 2008, 11:21am By RaChaCha

After playing at Rock Harbor Village (photo) a little over a week ago (see post), Western New York musician Christopher Bell has taken Rochester by storm, but only after facing another western New York storm—an electrical storm, that is, and a vicious one. Surviving that, and having his canoe nearly scuttled by an overly ambitious—and clueless—news cameraman, and bobbing through the Lockport locks like a rubber duck in the bottom of the bathtub (and feeling about as small), Christopher Bell of Jamestown paddled his way into Rochester a seasoned veteran despite being less than a week into his cross-state trek.

After launching his cross-state canoe trek from Rock Harbor in Buffalo, and playing his first gig in Brockport the night before, Chris brought his musical venture to Rochester’s coolest venue—Boulder Coffee. When I arrive there I find Chris amid a tangle of cables and equipment, and a buzz of clicking as a Rochester photographer hovers about—documenting Chris’ trekking and gigging for the New York Times.

Although not knowing what to expect beforehand, as Chris gets underway I discover that his singing, his ukulele, and his harmonica are a soulful mix of ingredients. His music is all from the heart, all slice-of-life, but thoughtful through and through, which appeals to this Rochester audience. The kind of idealistic progressives drawn to Boulder are increasingly representative of the whole South Wedge neighborhood, which has advanced in recent years onto a solid comeback path, and gained recognition as My Fair City’s latest coolest place. Boulder Coffee—appropriately founded in a rehabbed historic building—has become a mecca and a hub, last year helping launch Rochester’s first successful neighborhood farmers market in its parking lot.

Ending a song with his trademark polite “thank you,” Chris takes some audience questions about his trek. This leads to the story about the clueless news cameraman, who persisted in trying to get into the smallish canoe with him for an on-the-water shot. “He kept saying ‘Oh, it’ll be fine,’ but when the canoe went to a 30 degree angle, I was thinking about how they would write that into my epitaph!” laughs Chris.

And hey, what about that electrical storm? Chris tells us that it blew in suddenly over Adams Basin, a remote canal hamlet between Brockport and Spencerport. Natch, he beached the canoe, “but when a bolt hit the ground a few hundred yards away, I made a beeline for the nearest house and waited out the storm on the back porch.”

After finishing his next song with another “thank you,” Chris tells us that he writes most of his own songs, but that the one following would be an exception. “Long Road to Recovery” is by a friend of his who lives in Lily Dale, the spiritualist colony in the Cassadaga Valley south of Fredonia. “She’s not a spiritualist,” Chris insists. “But definitely spiritual,” he hastily adds. That much is clear from the deeply personal lyrics.

After that, perhaps to lighten the mood a bit, Chris goes back to talking about his trek. “After three days of constant dampness, I’m starting to get used to it—except for the wet socks. My mantra is ‘September 5, dry socks.’ I’m not even thinking about home, but just dry socks, and a clean towel!”

“Wake Up and Think” is up next, which seems to remind Chris that it’ll soon be past his bedtime. What could be the deal with a musician with a 9PM bedtime? Chris shares his daily schedule, and we’re reminded that canoeing across the state is a grueling physical ordeal of ten hours of paddling, and ten hours of sleeping, with eating, hygiene, gigs, and interviews fit in whenever possible. Chris puts us lazy landlubbers to shame: “I’m up at 7:30, on the water by 9, and I go till 7—and I eat lunch while I’m on the water.” How’s that working out? “Yesterday I hit a tree while I was eating my sub,” he reveals a bit sheepishly.

Yet there are no signs that the effort is wearing him down—in fact, far from it. “I’m thoroughly enjoying all twenty-four hours a day,” Chris tells me afterward. Some further conversation reveals that he (as did I) discovered the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull as a child. That’s a story—parable, really—of how adopting a unique philosophy of life and striving to overcome obstacles can lead to a transcendence over the mundane. “A lot of my philosophy can be traced back to that.” Chris’ music—and, especially, his trek—make it clear that he is a person who puts his philosophy into action.

And as if to show us that he’s still got plenty of juice left, Chris kicks it up a few notches to go out on the energetic “Crying Heart”—so perhaps he absorbed a jolt from that storm, after all! Still, at the end, he closed with his trademark quiet “thank you.”

Thank you, Chris, for bringing an evening of music and thought to both Buffalo and My Fair City.

Christopher Bell’s next scheduled gig is in Ithaca, on August 2

RaChaCha is the Rochester bureau chief for Rolling Stone Magazine—but only when he’s experiencing R.E.M. sleep.

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Christopher Bell and his gigging itinerary across the state - and it all started in Buffalo (see itinerary).