Chris Colepaugh is a blues-rock musician and front man of the band Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew. The band was founded in

Moncton Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the Maritime Provinces. The city has earned the nickname "Hub City" because o ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic Canad ...

, Canada, in 1996. A busy touring band, Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew won the East Coast Music Awards Entertainer of the Year Award in 2011. The band has opened in Canada and the United States for headliners such as

Big Sugar The sugar industry subsumes the production, processing and marketing of sugars (mostly sucrose and fructose). Globally, most sugar is extracted from sugar cane (~80% predominantly in the tropics) and sugar beet (~ 20%, mostly in temperate climate ...

, Gov't Mule, and the North Mississippi All-Stars.

Career

The Cosmic Crew

Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew got together in 1996 with Chris Colepaugh on lead guitars and vocals, Lynn Daigle on bass, and Craig Watson on drums. Colepaugh, Daigle, and Watson recorded the group's first album, ''Galaxy'' in one day, and the band began playing regularly throughout Canada's

Maritime Provinces The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...

. The band's next album, ''Mazes and Mirrors'', was recorded live in a recording studio in Halifax, and produced by Kevin MacMichael (

Cutting Crew Cutting Crew are an English rock band formed in London in 1985. They are best known for their debut album ''Broadcast'' and hit single, " (I Just) Died in Your Arms". History 1985–1986: Formation While still in his teens, Nick Van Eede ( ...

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following th ...

). The band went through a couple of different drummers after this, but by the time they recorded their next album, ''16 Second Solace'', Watson had returned.

Solo work

Starting with 2001's ''Trip'', Colepaugh began playing all the instruments himself on his albums, but still credited them to Chris Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew. The Canadian music site ''Exclaim!'' compared the album favorably to the psychedelia-tinged folk-rock of San Francisco in the late '60s. Colepaugh's career took an unexpected hiatus when he required emergency surgery on his gall bladder in 2004, and suffered through a long recovery process. He did not return to recording until 2006, with the album ''In Your Backyard''. The next release was the live album ''Burning'' (2009), recorded with bandmates Daigle and drummer Danny Bourgeois. Colepaugh's 2010 album, ''Missed a Page'' was widely acclaimed. ''

Relix ''Relix'', originally and occasionally later ''Dead Relix'', is a magazine that focuses on live and improvisational music. The magazine was launched in 1974 as a handmade newsletter devoted to connecting people who recorded Grateful Dead concert ...

'' Magazine hailed it for its variety, and praised Colepaugh's skill on his double-necked Gibson, saying, "Guitar riffs don't get much thicker than this." ''Missed a Page'' won a prestigious East Coast Music Award in 2011 for best rock album, and Colepaugh also won the ECMA Entertainer of the Year award that same year. Colepaugh has been in demand as a session musician, most notably playing pedal steel, electric and acoustic guitar with Canadian singer-songwriter/entertainer Roch Voisine, playing drums with Canadian rock artist

, as well as appearing on albums by Dominique Dupuis, Jason Haywood, and others. Colepaugh's album, ''RnR'', was released in 2016. The album featured "an infusion of southern-inspired rock greased with some rhythm & blues, and packed with all the energy of a live album," according to The East, an online arts and culture magazine focused on the

. A reviewer on the CBC said that on this album Colepaugh was "reminiscent of

Jeff Healey Norman Jeffrey Healey (March 25, 1966 – March 2, 2008) was a Canadian blues, rock and jazz singer, guitarist, and songwriter who attained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. He reached No. 5 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart with " A ...

". and was "really on the top of his game here." Colepaugh's most recent releases are spread out over the year of 2019 with one song being released each month.

Discography

Albums

* ''Galaxy'' (1996) * ''Mazes and Mirrors'' (1997) * ''16 Second Solace'' (1999) * ''Trip'' (2001) * ''In Time'' (2003) * ''Your Backyard'' (2006) * ''Burning'' (live album) (2009) * ''Missed a Page'' (2010) * ''RnR'' (2016)

Singles

*"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (2017) *"Angels We Have Heard On High" (2018) *"Louder" (2019) *"Mama's Eyes" (2019) *"Sunday Night" (2019) * "Walk On" (2019) * "I Want to See the Bright Lights" (2019) * "Only One Left" (2019) *"Could Have Been" (2019)

TV/Film Placement

* "Caught Up in You" - '' DeGrassi: The Next Generation'' (Season 8, Episode 8)

Awards

* 2011: East Coast Music Award: Winner, Entertainer of the Year * 2011: East Coast Music Award: Winner, Rock Album of the Year * 2010: Music New Brunswick Award: Winner, Musician of the Year * 2010: Music New Brunswick Award: Winner, Rock Album of the Year

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Colepaugh, Chris Canadian rock musicians Living people Musicians from Moncton Year of birth missing (living people)