Album: Blues 2001
Released: 2000

Chris was born in Washington, DC, and raised in Massachusetts on down-home cooking as well as on blues, jazz, rhythm & blues, and gospel music by his New York City dad and North Carolina mom. Before starting to play guitar at fourteen years old, he studied in Germany, where his dad was a visiting professor of American and African American Cultural Studies. Later, as an art and music major at the University of Massachusetts, Chris participated in jazz workshops with Archie Shepp and in a summer session at Berklee. He also studied guitar with Tony MacAlpine. His major influences range from B.B. King and Albert Collins to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Songwriter, lead guitarist, and vocalist, Chris Bell, Silver Bridge Recording blues artist from North Hollywood, California, is now on tour featuring his latest CD release “Real Bluesman” with his band, 100% Blues. They have also just recently released their live concert DVD "Stage on Fire", filmed locally in Tujunga, CA. Chris and his band "100% Blues" features Chuck Maithonis on bass and backing vocals, Stephen "DJ Sticks" Marshall on drums, and Dan Pulos on Hammond Organ. They have been successfully touring the Western US, and regularly head out to the East Coast every summer. They have received rave reviews of their latest album "Real Bluesman" in such magazines as Blues Revue, Living Blues, Southland Blues, Big City Rhythm & Blues, and more. Jim Santos of Southland Blues Magazine wrote - "Bell comes up with a winner that will undoubtedly wind up among this year's top ten blues albums." Of his previous album - “ ‘Hell Is Too Hot For Me’ is easily the best original blues guitar album to inhabit my CD player this year,” writes the reviewer for the Centre Daily Times, “maybe the best blues album period.” Chris Bell’s earlier two CDs, “Blues 2001” and “CHRIS BELL & 100% Blues: LIVE” and his live performances of mostly original songs have received rave reviews. “Mixing up the mood with catchy lyrics and some dark lowdown blues,” says the reviewer for Southwest Blues, “Bell shows a flair for blues styles past and present.” “Bell played guitar dirtier than dirt,” the Southland Blues reviewer writes about Bell’s performance at the Irvine Lake Blues Festival. “His biggest and coolest trait is his grit and grimy voice that is so distinctive it’s in a class alone.” His single “Elevator to Heaven” was been among the top downloaded songs on MP3 in 1999. Chris is also currently the producer and host of "100% Blues," a cable access TV show in the Los Angeles area.

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