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Northern sleeps in Maine. His songs are from New Hampshire.
Northern’s debut, Your House and Mine, is the latest impressive album to emerge from a scene so rich, Pitchfork Media was compelled to write about it. Portsmouth, NH, is home to the scene and to Chris Greiner, who started Northern in 2004 to explore his own music after years of playing sideman to others. Northern is a study in plainspoken simplicity and quiet resonance. The ten songs on Your House and Mine proceed with patient force, taking shape around Greiner’s understated vocals and the fluid arrangements that support them.
For the album Greiner layered violin, cello, vibraphone, Rhodes, organ, and pedal steel guitar over fundamental guitar, bass, and drums to provide texture and embellishment. Musicians involved in the project include his brother, John Greiner (drums), Jason Probert (bass), Nate Groth and Sidney Alexis of The Hotel Alexis (guitar), Marc McElroy of Elroy (keyboards), and Say ZuZu frontman Jon Nolan (pedal steel).
Your House and Mine is the musical culmination of Greiner’s personal history. In 2001 a chance road trip to New Hampshire from his home on Long Island extended into relocation when he fell in love with the area. Not long after arriving, he began playing bass for the Kimchee Records band Torrez, recording and touring behind their critically acclaimed 2002 album The Evening Drag. Greiner is a contributing music writer for Jam Magazine, the statewide music publication, and The Wire, a Seacoast arts weekly. Pursuing his interest in engineering, he interned with Jim Tierney at The Electric Cave recording studio, where Josh Ritter’s Golden Age of Radio was put to tape during his tenure. Northern has performed with Chris Brokaw, Unbunny, and John Vanderslice, among others.
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