The other day Chris Haddox was surprised to find himself sharing the same sonic air as Bob Dylan and John Hiatt.
“Well, yeah, that was interesting,” said Haddox, a WVU professor and Morgantown musician whose self-titled album went national Friday.
After all, he said, Dylan, even with his sandpaper-rasp, is still the country’s troubadour and heir to Woody Guthrie.
And Hiatt, the Americana journeyman, is also a respected songwriter and performer, known equally for the Bonnie Raitt and Buddy Guy cover versions of his tunes out there.
“You never know where you’re going to end up on some of these playlists,” he said. “I’ll take being sandwiched between Dylan and Hiatt any day.”
The crafting of tunes is also right in Haddox’s wheelhouse — he wrote his first song in second grade and never stopped.
Haddox grew up playing acoustic guitar, old-time fiddle and claw-hammer banjo in Logan County, on his way to Morgantown and WVU — where he is now Dr. John Christopher Haddox, an authority in sustainable building practices in the School of Design and Community Development.
Before that, he was an intrepid executive in cargo shorts, serving as director of Monongalia County Habitat for Humanity, the organization that helps achieve the dream of home ownership for those who may not have the opportunity otherwise.
College of Musical Knowledge
And way before that, he was an earnest dropout of the school in Morgantown: A sojourner who in 1983 ventured to south to Nashville, Tenn., intent on making it big in Music City, USA.
There, the then-21-year-old waited tables and once famously commiserated with Garth Brooks: the pre-Garth, not-famous-just-yet, version.
Haddox got one shot, really. It was a hurried meeting with a recording executive on Music Row, who listened to a cassette of four original tunes — allotting five seconds apiece for each.
He came back to Morgantown to pursue other things, but he never stopped picking.
And now, just shy of 40 years later, he’s getting another go-around. As said, the self-titled “Chris Haddox” album on the Mountain Soul label is out there for the world to hear.
It was produced by Ron Sowell, the musical director West Virginia Public Radio’s landmark “Mountain Stage” show, which is doing an on-the-road broadcast this weekend at WVU.
Showtime is 7 p.m. Sunday at the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre, in the Creative Arts Center, and yes, Haddox is on the bill that includes Janis Ian, the 1970s singer-songwriter, and Beppe Gambetta, the bluegrass, flatpicking guitar icon from Italy.
Kathy Mattea, another WVU student who lit out for Nashville, will host.
And tonight, if you’re inclined for a road trip of your own, you can hear Haddox perform songs from his album at the Woody Hawley Concerts, a musical series at the Clay Center, in Charleston. That show is at 7:30 p.m.
Visit https://www.chrishaddoxmusic.com/ for more particulars on the album and related news.
‘I have started lining up some gigs’
Meanwhile, Sowell, who first heard Haddox at a songwriter event three years ago, pre-COVID, encouraged a meeting in Morgantown.
He was struck by the width-and-breadth of the musical narratives he was hearing, he said, and he wanted to produce that full album, which now has Haddox into all this.
After all, Haddox, he said, can be achingly heartfelt, and gloriously goofy, in the same set. Sowell likes the musicianship, too.
Well, there’s that, the producer said, plus a varied resume that blends a Ph.D., and Dr. Ralph Stanley, at the same time.
“People with road maps are way more interesting,” Sowell told The Dominion Post previously.
“Interesting,” is the word, said Haddox, who also found himself in the middle of a music video for “A Soul Can’t Rest in Peace Beside the Four Lane,” which was one of the first singles to be released earlier from the album.
“Every once in a while I do have to stop and pinch myself,” he said, chuckling.
The album is already getting good notices — but what if it really hits big?
Wait, he said. That’s rushing the tempo.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to quit my day job, but I have started lining up some gigs outside of West Virginia.”
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