C.R. Avery

C.R. Avery

C.R. Avery is a Vancouver-born Canadian musician, poet and playwright whose work combines blues harmonica, beatboxing, spoken word and hip-hop. He describes himself through a one-man performance style that brings together singing, harmonica, beatboxing and keytar, and his writing draws on slam poetry and the international spoken word circuit.

Career and collaborations

He appears as a musical guest with the Be Good Tanyas and Po Girl, is a member of Tons Of Fun University, and writes songs for artists including Jolie Holland. His work is heard both as solo material and in collaborative settings, and he performs at folk festivals, clubs and small venues in places including Berlin and Edinburgh.

Avery performs with a distinctive live setup, playing harmonica while beatboxing and singing, and also using a Herbie Hancock-style 1980s red rocket keytar. His voice is described as rough and recognisable, and his songs develop from material shaped in slam poetry settings, where he competes in a format that values clarity and directness.

Style and influences

His music crosses blues, americana, spoken word and abstract hip-hop. He is associated with a genre-blending approach that places him outside conventional categories, and his writing and delivery are rooted in blues phrasing as well as poetry performance.

In his own account of his musical development, he cites James Cotton, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Terry, Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson as key harmonica influences. He also refers to listening closely to late-night CBC blues programming and to Canadian blues players while learning the instrument.

Recognition and notable performances

C.R. Avery is a past winner of the CBC national Poetry Face-Off. He has performed with or been admired by artists including Tom Waits, Ani DiFranco, Utah Phillips and Sage Francis, and Tom Waits brings him on stage in Germany for a performance. Avery is also presented as a figure admired by musicians, with a reputation for unusual and technically varied live performance.

Recorded work

One of his notable solo releases is Magic Hour Sailor Songs, which brings together string quartet, an all-female jazz choir and other jazz and classical musicians. The album is presented as a multi-genre work built from poetic material and arranged to combine jazz, classical and spoken-word elements.

A song from his first opera, Crazy Dreams, later appears on Jolie Holland’s album Springtime Can Kill You. He also works on an early opera project that uses scenes from Othello, Romeo & Juliet, Long Day’s Journey Into the Night and A Streetcar Named Desire between his own songs, and the filmed performance is later used as a cassette demo.

Early performance background

Avery’s early career includes blues open mics, train and rally performances, and work with folk and protest events. He plays for the Sierra Club, travels on a train solidarity excursion for rainforest protection, and later gets involved with festivals and club dates, including work at the Mont Tremblant Blues Festival and performances in Hamilton, Quebec and Newfoundland.

He also spends time on the international slam poetry scene, and his lyrics develop from that environment as well as from years of playing in bars and cabarets.