Christine Havrilla

Christine Havrilla's skillfully aggressive guitar playing animates her tales of the scars, fumbles, first times, simple pleasures, pain and yearning listeners from all walks of life can recognize. With topics ranging from love to life goals, Havrilla approaches her songwriting with fervor, zeal, honesty and talent that draws the listener closer and causes critics like Helen Leicht from Philadelphia's WXPN to say, "Christine has a great knack for infectious melodies with really fun hooks. Compounded with an incredible live performance, you CAN NOT go wrong!" Referring to Havrilla's recent CD, This Whirlwind Life, Leicht adds, "Pop this one in the CD player and you'll find you can't take it out."

This Whirlwind Life showcases not only her growth as a writer but her considerable instrumental skills; she plays all the acoustic, electric, and Nashville guitars, the bass, and the mandolin, and was literally a one-woman band on several tracks. With recent television appearances on CN8's "Your Morning" and NBC's 10!, Havrilla has been taking the East Coast by storm with 2,000 to 10,000 audience performances at Musikfest, Philadelphia Aids Walk, Penn State Arts Fest, and New York's Central Park and Philadelphia's Belmount Plateau as part of the Girls on the Move event. Havrilla also performs sellout shows in venerable smaller venues such as Philadelphia's The Point and the Tin Angel, with frequent stops at showcase clubs and major outdoor festivals throughout the East coast, Midwest, and South. Her material has meanwhile been gaining massive momentum online, with web-based accomplishments including:

• Garageband.com's "Song of the Day" for "Here I Am" & "Every Now & Then"
• "More Than the Road" hit #1 Best Female Vocals/Reviewers Choice & #3 Smoochiest Love Song at Garageband.com in 2004
• Seven songs, "Set Me Free", "Let Me," "Diamonds", "Four Leaf Clover", "Rest of Your Life", "Another River" and "In the End" have had multi-day stays at the No. 1 national singles slot at mp3, and she had an incredible seven songs in the top 40 at once.
• Her mp3-only CD, "Halo," shot to No. 1 on the folk/rock album chart
• She received mp3's 2001 Blockbuster Award for Favorite Female Rock Artist
• "Another River" hit the No. 1 spot in the folk/country category on garageband.com, and she was the only local artist selected to perform on Garageband.com's "Best of the West Coast Tour". Also, "Another River " is still the #1 folk/country song of all time at garageband.

The positive recognition for Havrilla's work doesn't stop online. She was a finalist for Philadelphia's City Paper's 2002 Best Folk Artist/Group award, and received two grants in two consecutive years from The National Endowment for the Arts for its Meet the Composer series. She has opened for such acts as Don McLean, Melissa Ferrick, Jill Sobule, Janis Ian, Karla Bonoff, Grey Eye Glances, Sara Lee, David Wilcox, Francis Dunnery, Catie Curtis, Susan Werner and Sally Taylor. She also composed and performed the music on a spoken word recording by Johnny Cash.

Mike Joyce of the Washington Post called Havrilla's last CD, Some Other Thing "something special," noting that "the songs are intelligent and moving, the arrangements are incisive and colorful, and, best of all, Havrilla consistently comes off as a confident and seasoned performer.

Self-taught and self-disciplined, Havrilla wins crowds over everywhere she goes with her musical bravado, heartfelt lyrics, and sparkling personality…and her guitar a mere extension of herself. Perhaps this is why Atlanta's Creative Loafing raved "Havrilla 's from the rare but appreciated 'player first, folk singer second' school of folk rock."

Contact: BOOKING/VOICE MAIL: boxrilla music, (610)331-5835, www.christinehavrilla.com, music@christinehavrilla.com
PRESS/LEGAL: Helen Richardson, (215)575-3909 (ofc.), (215)601-0833 (cell/voice mail), hhrcrash@aol.com