In a day where it seems all you hear about is the new indie-alterna-not-quite-rock phenomenon to come down the pipe, it's a refreshing, nay wonderful, thing to hear something a little off the beaten path.

Chris Harris isn't from Oregon, though he has long shared roots here. His great grandparents came here as homesteaders way back when, so we'll call him a naturalized resident of the state, and honestly, if you roam around Portland and ask people where they are from, it seems that the vast majority will tell you a great story of how they ended up here from some far flung state, so I suppose being a Portlander these days is more of a state of mind rather than where you were born.

Hailing from Mesquite Texas, and trust me when you hear his honey tongued singing with that twang caressing each word as it lands on your ears you'll know that he could only be from this small Dallas suburb, Chris truly brings something a little different from the standard fair in the area in his catchy, mournful, jubilant, sincere folk songs.

I've been spending the last couple of weeks shuffling through various albums sent to me by eager-to-be-heard artists and this one has had me coming back time and time again.

As you listen to his album, it's hard not to think of living back in a little rural town, or being cast back to a time when you had simpler issues. What I'd like to call this music is contemporary folk, as it doesn't hearken back to days of sitting around a camp fire drinking rye whiskey, or talk about times of an America most of us never knew, but instead takes place in a current world, still applying a good Americana Singer Songwriter approach to the whole thing, but requiring no need to translate the events into modern equivalents.

This album, I suppose, holds a great value to myself because I, like Chris, grew up in a small farming town outside a larger metropolitan area, and if you told people where you were from they immediately made assumptions that you were some kind of bumpkin or were a wide-eyed-hick wandering into the big city. Of course my hometown is no longer that way being just another suburb of Portland and only different because it is one of the furthest out stops you can get off at on Tri-Met.

Chris, we at LiveMusicPDX truly enjoyed this album from beginning to end. This album has been out for a little while now, and I hope that there are many more to come as we will be sure to be some of the first in line to get our hands on it.

Jake didn't have to think too long to give Chris Harris' self titled album 5 Bacon Maple Bars.

Go to Chris Harris' website to find out more about the artist and where to get your hands on his album.