06/19/2026
THIS SUNDAY!
CHRIS VALLILLO in concert at the Lake County Folk Club, Grayslake Village Hall.
Chris Vallillo is a singer/songwriter and roots musician who makes the people and places of “unmetropolitan” America come to life in song. Having spent the last 30 years in the rural Midwest, he has a natural affinity for American roots music. Performing on six-string and bottleneck slide guitars, Vallillo weaves original, contemporary, and traditional songs and narratives into a compelling and entertaining portrait of the history and lifestyles of the Midwest. Dirty Linen magazine described the music as, “vivid, original story songs” delivered with an “eye for detail and a sense of history” while FolkWax Magazine Editor, Arthur Wood said “Vallillo’s guitar playing flows like warm honey and is a true aural delight.”
Vallillo’s music has a timeless quality about it. You can hear the strains of the Carter Family and Jimmy Rogers reflected in his writing. It's roots based original and contemporary folk with the rich acoustic textures of bottleneck slide, finger style and flatpicked guitars that echo the influences of Mississippi John Hurt, Norman Blake, Doc Watson and Ry Cooder.
Always a project oriented artist, in the early 2000s Vallillo began creating one man shows using music as the vehicle to explore a subject or theme. His 2008 project, titled Abraham Lincoln in Song, received the endorsement of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and the CD reached #10 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Album Chart. In 2016, his recording, Oh Freedom! Songs of the Civil Rights Movement charted at # 6 on the folk charts and the show was staged with a band and full choir at Western IL University. That show was videoed and syndicated on Illinois Public Television.
In 2021 Chris returned to his songwriter roots with a new recording, Forgottonia featuring original songs and instrumentals written about about rural Illinois.
Opening for Chris is JACK KENNEDY
MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS here:
https://thelakecountyfolkclub.org/reservations.html
