In 2010,
Canadian blues guitarist, singer and songwriter Chris Antonik arrived onto the
national and international blues scene with his self-titled debut recording,
which received widespread critical acclaim, placed in the Roots Music Report Top
100 charts for over a year, and garnered Antonik a nomination for Best New
Artist of the Year at Canada’s national Maple Blues Awards. After extensive
touring and major blues festival appearances in Canada in 2011 and 2012, Chris
now returns with his highly anticipated follow-up Better For You,
scheduled for release on March 26, 2013.
Better
For You is a highly personal and reflective album for Antonik, dealing with
rebuilding relationships, learning to put others first, and developing a
positive moral code in a world full of blues.
With Antonik on
the majority of lead vocals, guest vocalists include: two-time Grammy
award-winner Mike Mattison (The Derek Trucks Band, The Tedeschi-Trucks Band),
2013 American Blues Music award-nominee Shakura S’Aida, and the incredibly
soulful Josh Williams (The Fat Cats), who also features on keyboards throughout
the album. The electrifying and eternally funky Chris Chiarelli (drums) and
Andrew Taylor (bass) once again hold down the rhythm section. Other guest
artists include: blues Juno award-winners Steve Marriner (MonkeyJunk) and Julian
Fauth, as well as Canadian music veterans Suzie Vinnick, and Richard Underhill,
who arranged all the horns on the album.
Co-produced by
Antonik and Ted Onyszczak, the album was recorded by Grammy award-winning
engineer Jeremy Darby (U2, Mick Jagger, Colin Linden) at Toronto’s Canterbury
Studios, and includes 10 original songs written and co-written by Antonik, and
one cover song. Ben Fisher, Paul Olsen (Scrapomatic) and Heather Hill
contributed to the co-writes.
"The energy on Antonik’s
sophomore release is...purely joyful...Antonik wields his guitar as someone with
the authority to do so" - Blues Rock Review
"Antonik not only equals his
dynamite debut release, but improves upon it in many ways." -
BluesBytes.net
"Following
Canadian acts I enjoy such as Colin James, David Gogo, JW Jones and Downchild,
here comes a new name to add to the list - Chris Antonik."
-
Thebluesblast.com
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