Artist description Christine Havrilla's aggressive guitar playing animates her tales of the scars, fumbles, first times, simple pleasures, pain and yearning any listener would recognize. Havrilla, a self-taught musician who began performing at age 7 in her father's folk group, uses open tunings to great effect in energetic, spiritual and insightful live shows appealing to rock, pop, singer/songwriter, folk and alternative listeners. Havrilla is comfortable in front of large audiences (8,000 at Musikfest as a solo headliner, 10,000 at the Penn State Arts Festival, 5,000 at the Erie Festival of the Arts and the Philadelphia AIDS Walk, 2,000 at shows on successive weekends in New York's Central Park and Philadelphia's Belmont Plateau as part of the National "Girls on the Move" event), and in sellout performances in venerable smaller venues such as Philadelphia's Tin Angel, Atlanta's Eddie's Attic and New York's cb's gallery, with frequent stops at showcase clubs and major outdoor festivals in Pittsburgh, Chicago, San Francisco, Michigan, Washington DC, Virginia, North Carolina and New England. Havrilla's material is already gaining massive momentum on websites such as mp3.com, where five of her songs, "Let Me," "Diamonds", "Four Leaf Clover", "Rest of Your Life", and "In the End" skyrocketed to the No. 1 national singles slots for multi-day stays. Christine has had seven songs in the top 40 at once, including the 5 time #1 song "Let Me" which still tops the folk rock charts since its introduction in January of 1999. Her mp3-only CD, "Halo," shot to No. 1 on the folk/rock album chart. She received mp3's "2001 Blockbuster Award" for her dominance of the charts there, and Anne Murray, whose records Havrilla listened to with her mother as a youngster, chose Havrilla for a special MP3 promotion with her album. Havrilla was recently chosen by garageband.com to be the only local artist on the Philadelphia stop of its "Best of the West Coast Tour." The National Endowment for the Arts has rewarded Christine's songwriting with two grants in two years as part of the "Meet the Composer" series. She also has opened for such acts as Melissa Ferrick, Jill Sobule, Janis Ian, Karla Bonoff, Catie Curtis, Sally Taylor and Christine Lavin. She composed and performed the guitar accompaniment for a spoken word recording by Johnny Cash. She is a generous donor of her time and services to the American Cancer Society and the AIDS Fund, and one of her recordings, "As You Feel," is included in the "Women Rock" CD to benefit the suicide survivors' organization Say The Word. Havrilla's self-produced sophomore CD, "SOME OTHER THING," is a popular listener choice locally, on Philadelphia tastemakers WXPN and Y100, regionally, and nationally, through the inclusion of "Set Me Free" on a compilation CD released by Oasis Records to more than 450 stations nationwide. Mike Joyce of the Washington Post called "SOME OTHER THING" "something special," noting that "the songs are intelligent and moving, the arrangements are incisive and colorful, and, best of all, Havrilla consistently comes off as a confident and seasoned performer." Atlanta's Creative Loafing raved "Havrilla cuts through the murky singer-songwriter waters with a more sophisticated compositional vision, far removed from the disappointing good-voice-simplistic-strum-along formula…she's from the rare but appreciated 'player first, folk singer second' school of folk rock." Havrilla is at work on a new solo recording project, and founded and plays bass in a Philadelphia-based band, 3 Stories Hi

Music Style Singer Songwriter, Acoustic, Folk Rock , Easy listening

Musical Influences jonatha brooke, 10,000 maniacs, U2, Indigo Girls(early), Crowded House, Shawn Colvin...

Similar Artists Cheryl Crow, Indigo Girls, Natalie Merchant, Bonnie Raitt, Carole King, Eva Cassidy,Carly Simon,Jonatha Brooke,Ani DeFranco,Stevie Nicks

Group Members --Christine Havrilla-acoustic & electric guitars, vocals.--Tim "shue" Schumacher- electric guitar.--Bill Gallagher-bass. --Michael Beeson-drums, percussion.

Press Reviews --Mike Joyce of the Washington Post called "SOME OTHER THING" "something special," noting that "the songs are intelligent and moving, the arrangements are incisive and colorful, and, best of all, Havrilla consistently comes off as a confident and seasoned performer." --"Angelic, emotional vocals over rock solid musicianship. Quality Folk/Blues/Rock. No doubt we'll be hearing from her in a big way very soon!" --MP3.com

Location Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - USA

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