Chris Rice

    Chris Rice

    Nashville, Tennessee9 reviews across 8 releases

    acousticadult contemporaryccmsinger-songwriter
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    Chris Rice is a singer-songwriter from Clinton, Maryland, who moved to Nashville in the 1980s and began writing and leading music for youth camps and college retreats. Rocketown Records signed him as its first artist in 1996. His early records used polished adult-contemporary arrangements, warm piano and guitar, and lyrics that treated faith through ordinary scenes, questions, humor, and close attention to nature. Past the Edges established that approach, though its production was judged cautious; Smell the Color 9 pushed further into circus sounds and comic experimentation, while retaining its devotional focus. In 2001, The Living Room Sessions stripped the music to piano-only arrangements of hymns, showing a quieter side of the same songwriter. His vocal style remained smooth and James Taylor-influenced, while his lyrics supplied the sharper individual character.

    In 2005, Rice left Rocketown and released Amusing through Eb+Flo, a move accompanied by looser arrangements and songs that treated grief, romantic love, time, and belief with a more openly whimsical tone. He continued recording beyond the period covered here, then spent years largely away from public music-making. In 2019, he returned with Andrew Ripp for the collaborative album Songs We Wrote on Tuesdays, built from songs they had developed during years of Tuesday writing sessions. In 2020, allegations were made concerning sexual misconduct with a former student during Rice's years leading youth retreats. An independent investigation reported in June 2022 that the accounts were credible. Rice has not been active in music since that report.

    8 releases reviewed