Singer-songwriter Chris Milam is around central Arkansas a lot, but he has never lived here.
His parents, Robert and Mary Lou Entzminger, however, are a different story.
“My folks moved there in 2003, when I went off to college,” says Milam, who grew up in Memphis and then headed east for college at Vanderbilt in Nashville, where he studied music and English literature. “They live in Conway, where my dad is [provost] at Hendrix [College], and mom drives to Little Rock, where she’s [head of the upper school] at the Episcopal Collegiate School.”
Milam calls Memphis home again, after post-college stints in Nashville before going off to take a bite out of the Big Apple. He returned to Memphis in 2012.
“I wanted a cheaper home base, since I’m on the road quite a bit,” he says.
Milam reckons he has performed from 15 to 20 times in Little Rock, at clubs that include Juanita’s, Stickyz and the White Water Tavern, but he will be doing his first show in Hot Springs tonight at Maxine’s. He has usually had a band along in the past, but his shows this weekend will be solo. He has five recordings so far, after debuting with Leaving Tennessee, which he then did. His most recent, Young Avenue, came out last fall, and has earned him comparisons with Ryan Adams and Van Morrison.
Young Avenue is a five song EP, and Milam says it includes his best-known song, “Shine.” He had recorded it on an earlier album, Tin Angel, but reworked it last fall.
“Folks seem to like that song,” he says. “I always try to do that one, and my other originals, throwing in a selected cover now and then.”
The albums of his youth that influence him, he admits, include records by Matthew Sweet (Girlfriend), The Gin Blossoms (New Miserable Experience), R.E.M. (Automatic for the People) and Counting Crows (August and Everything After). In one of his latest musical adventures, he was invited to take part in making a recording as part of a new series for PBS, The Sun Sessions, which leads into Austin City Limits in some markets, but has yet to air in Arkansas.
“I got to go into Sun studios in Memphis in March and record some original songs,” he says. “That was the first time I had ever set foot in there, even though I’d grown up in Memphis, so it was a real treat to get to do that. My folks are big Elvis [Presley] fans, so I had heard all about the place, but until you’re in the place, you don’t get a sense of it all, and how you can just feel its history.”
One of Milam’s latest songs, “Dark in the Garden,” is on Young Avenue and a compilation, The 15th Annual Memphis Film Festival: Lust, along with 20 other Memphis artists, including Lucero, Susan Marshall, The Bar-Kays, John Paul Keith, Amy LaVere, Harlan T. Bobo and The Memphis Dawls.
Chris Milam
8 p.m. today, Maxine’s, 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs
Admission: Free (501) 321-0909 maxineslive.com
Headliner: Chris Duarte Opening acts: Chris Milam Steve Hester & Deja VooDoo, Davis Coen 9 p.m. Saturday, Juanita’s, 614 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock Admission: $12 advance, $15 day of show (501) 372-1228
juanitas.com
Weekend, Pages 36 on 05/16/2013