Nationally acclaimed bluegrass multi-instrumentalist Chris Walz combines a joy of performing with a reverence for America’s musical story. Chris perfected his Scruggs-style banjo playing and guitar flatpicking at a young age as he diligently studied all his musical heroes from Pete Seeger to Mississippi John Hurt to Woody Guthrie to Dave Van Ronk.

Whether it is his lightning speed on the banjo’s fretboard, his hard hitting grooves on the guitar or his tender melodic touch on the mandolin, Chris delivers a fulfilling performance. To top it off, Chris is an extraordinary singer, using his rich voice to buoy up a traditional ballad, a unique original composition, or a rousing ‘tear down the house’ bluegrass medley.

His many years touring with bluegrass, Grammy nominated Special Consensus, honed his group and solo prowess. A natural born storyteller, Chris has a masterful presence as he weaves his songs and remembrances, one to the next, into a night of music that is not easily forgotten.

Chris is a gifted and much sought after teacher at the historic Old Town School of Folk Music and spreads his knowledge and love of music in each community he plays in with well-polished workshops. A rare combination of past and present, Chris is playing music for the future.

And now the Chicago-based folk performer and guitarist Chris Walz has just released his very first solo album, All I Got and Gone, independently on March 14th, 2025.

1. Alabama Bound
2. Blue Ridge Mountain Blues
3. Delia
4. Going Across the Sea
5. Been All Around This World
6. Hard Times Come Again No More
7. Diamond Joe
8. One Dime Blues
9. The Coo Coo
10. See See Rider
11. Spanish Fandango

This musician’s musician, a performer, and esteemed educator, opens his debut with the free flowing musical majesties within Alabama Bound and the upbeat and gently robust Blue Ridge Mountain Blues and they are followed by the earthy ballad Delia, the magnificently melodious instrumental Going Across the Sea and then we get the beautiful Been All Around This World (sometimes known as Hang Me, Oh Hang Me) brought forth.

Along next is the dutifully earnest ballad Hard Times Come Again No More and the languishing, lonesome ode that resides within Diamond Joe and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the stylized instrumental One Dime Blues, the rhythmically mid-tempo The Coo Coo, the album rounding out on the pleasing See See Rider, coming to a close on the all-embracing instrumental Spanish Fandango.

“I wanted to make this record for a long time,” Walz explains. “The records that made their mark with me were, for the most part, one guitar and one voice. It always seemed the most direct way for me to connect with the music, as though Etta Baker, Norman Blake, or Doc Watson was sitting across from me playing and singing.”

“In a sense, they were. Just inside the speaker. I didn’t want to make a carbon copy of anyone’s version of any song, yet I hope the influences can be felt. Some of these songs I’ve been living with for years, others are more recent. But all of them are piecework, verses from various sources, some poetic license, plus my own arrangements.”