Daily Inspiration: Meet Chris Burke

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Burke.

Chris, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Haha how do I even start? There are so many moments and performances and life-markers that helped me to become the artist and entertainer I am today. But the performance I remember that I can most easily pinpoint where my love of entertaining was officially sparked happened when I was about 5 years old. I sat with my Mom at our sweet church we attended for the 10 years we lived in North Carolina, and we sang Kumbaya for a full congregation. After we finished, there was a thunderous applause, and I actually remember feeling ‘wow, now THIS is amazing.’ After that first performance, I sang in choirs, musicals, a cappella groups, and any solo performances I could find all through elementary school, high school, and college, and beyond.

In my years in Atlanta after college, I started writing and performing at clubs and bars, starting to find my voice and see what fit where. I had some good successes in Atlanta, including performing on the Today Show multiple times. I moved to Nashville in 2005, and hit the ground running, writing and performing anywhere I could. Over the next 14 years in Nashville, I recorded 4 full length albums (2 of originals and 2 of soul covers), as well as an EP and multiple singles, covering a bunch of different genres: pop, soul, dance, electronic, etc. In that same time period, I was able to perform at the iconic Bluebird Cafe a few times, as well as many other well known venues here, and I toured the east coast, fighting tooth and nail to establish myself in a wildly competitive music scene.

Around 2017, after years of performing a soul show around town, I met a friend for coffee, and we discussed her 17 year career performing as a guest entertainer on cruise ships. With her help, I put together a package for her agent, and the rest is, as they say, history.

Since 2017, I have been a full time professional musician, on and off of cruise ships, which as a kid was the EXACT thing I wished for. I have traveled the world and to places where I never imagined I would step foot. In this time working in these incredible theaters at sea, I have learned more than I ever imagined I would, and I am constantly honing my craft of performing and entertaining. Also, I am presently working on a new project of original material for the first time in over 10 years, and I am THRILLED about it. It has been a long and bumpy and scary but incredibly satisfying journey.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
For the most part, my journey as an entertainer has been smooth, just not always up or in the right direction, or at the speed I wished. I have always known that I could sing and that I enjoyed performing, but it has really taken me until the last few years to really be aware of how hard I’ve worked and how far I’ve grown. Nashville is one of the most incredible places to find your voice, find your people, and be inspired non-stop by the ridiculous amount of talent all around you. But it’s also near impossible to be noticed or be able to make a living solely as a musician because of the sheer numbers of talented people doing the exact same thing.

My main struggles have always been inexperience and lack of whatever cutthroat mentality it takes to figure all this out when you’re younger haha. There always seem to be people that just have that thing and that spark and that unending drive to succeed no matter what. I have fought for everything I have achieved, but it has taken me a while to even know how to fight the fight. I knew, though, that once I was in the right place at the right time that I would be able to rise to the challenge, I just had to figure out how to get to the challenge and prove myself.

So, I kept my head to the ground and fought and struggled and clawed my way to have the chance to prove myself and be able to travel the world on these incredible ships, see the places I’ve only ever dreamed of, and meet some of the most incredible people in the world. And the success that I have found at sea has helped me find even more confidence and success on land, with more shows, more original music, and more belief in myself and my ability to perform and entertain.

With many careers like being a professional musician, there is no blueprint or map on how to achieve it. There is hope, and talent, and drive, and GOOD LUCK! So many people move to places like Nashville to be a working musician, but only a handful ever really rise to the top. So, to be able to be a full time working musician is one of my greatest and challenging achievements.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Soul music! I was raised on classic stuff like Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke, so all of that really was part of my foundation. I listened to my mom’s record collection growing up which included all of that, but my brothers and father were into everything from country to pop and everything in between, so I really just absorbed everything.

My own personal style is soul. I have country and pop and even broadway/musical songs that I perform, but those songs will always have my own personal twist of soul in them. I regularly perform Dolly Parton, Chris Stapleton, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, and songs from Wicked and Little Shop of Horrors, but they always have my own personal soul-stamp on them.

It’s funny because I have always enjoyed being able to perform in many different styles and genres, and I have always prided myself in my ability to recreate the original sound, but as I get older, my favorite part of performing these songs is making them my own. I have had the pleasure of singing more broadway tunes and old school country songs recently, and my favorite thing is putting my own stamp on them, and singing them the way that only I can.

This personal growth in myself and my music is one of the things I am most proud of.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
I have thought about this question a lot lately. For me personally, I feel like I am exactly where I am and achieving what I am at this point in my life because of everything I’ve learned and exactly when I learned it. There is so much I would love to be able to tell a younger me or those who are just starting out, but even if I could go back and do it, I don’t think I would have been able to process the information without the context of personal growth. It would be like expecting a plant to grow with some amazing fertilizer but without any of the proper soil. I personally needed the time it took for me to get to this point to grow enough to be able to do what I do now with the confidence it took to get here.

Having said that, the advice I would give to anyone starting out is the same as I would give to a younger me. Figure out who you are. What makes YOU tick? What is it that you want to say and convey in your art? What does YOUR voice sound like? Not just your singing voice or your instrument, but how does your light shine? What does it look like? And fight for it! I always thought that because I could sing and I looked a certain way that a career would just land in my lap. I believed I wouldn’t have to fight for anything because it would all work out for me regardless. And in many ways, life has done exactly that. But I do wish I had understood the work a career in music would entail earlier in my career (possibly my 20s), and I wish I had started clawing and fighting for it then as hard as I am now. Again, though, this has been MY path, and I am here doing what I love now because of the crazy and rocky road it took to get me here.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chrisburkemusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisburkemusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheChrisBurkeMusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/chrisburkemusic
• soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/chrisburkemusic

Image Credits
2 stage shots by me, 2 suit/t-shirt shots by Toby Gilbert. Headshot (white sweater) by Shana Jarrett