For nearly two decades in Nashville, Chris Weaver has mixed southern rock, blues, country and pop for a living on stage while writing original material with some of the city’s top writers. Not a typical Nashville artist, his band’s sound is sometimes augmented by horns and percussion that support a soulful voice that draws from a lifetime of different influences.
“The stuff I was into I would say was the Beatles first,” he said, “and then I got into Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Crosby Stills & Nash, Joe Cocker, Bob Seger. I wasn’t into country much but I like the old guys, I was a big Hee Haw fan. Songwriters like Willie Nelson and those guys, like the ‘Rat Pack’ of Texas country. I’m 43, and my influences came from my dad, he had a band for 25 years and a lot of my influences came from his record collection.”
Weaver has written with numerous co-writers over the years, some of whom are hit country song writers such as Harley Allen (Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson), Stephony Smith (Tim McGraw, Dixie Chicks), Matt Rogers (Justin Moore, Dustin Lynch). He has also found success in Brazil, where he teams up with Brazilian music stars Fernando e Sorocaba. “Sorocaba, is similar to the Garth Brooks of Brazil,” Weaver said. “He has a duo, there’s a lot of duos in Brazil, in Central America really. Sorocaba found me while on vacation to Nashville and brought to Brazil to perform. He liked a song of mine called ‘California High,’” Weaver continued, “and it became one of the songs we do on the Brazil Live record. For about two years we were working and working, doing these huge concerts and traveling down there with the whole band.
People liked that we were an American band and going into these Brazilian venues. Also on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT, the Nashville singer, songwriter and bandleader Chris Weaver takes to the information superhighway with his weekly podcast to discuss, well, whatever happens to be going on at the moment, and whatever his guests and callers want to talk about.
From music to sports to alcohol, Weaver and his guests, who can include singers like Jerrod Niemann, Dustin Lynch and Shawn Mayer, as well as sports figures like Tennessee Titans color analyst Dave McGinnis and former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, basically have a good time shooting the bull in the third season of the podcast from Weaver’s home studio.