Chris Rand and the Heavy Echo Debut album coming in 2025

Chris Rand and the Heavy Echo  Debut album coming in 2025   Rising from the London blues and soul scene, Chris Rand has assembled a band which creatively blends the sounds of blues, soul, rock and jazz.  This is original music which follows the lineage of artists such as John Mayall, Jack Bruce and Steely Dan, while also exploring the psychedelic soul sounds from modern bands such as Black Pumas and The Black Keys.......

Chris Rand and the Heavy Echo  Debut album coming in 2025  

Rising from the London blues and soul scene, Chris Rand has assembled a band which creatively blends the sounds of blues, soul, rock and jazz. 

This is original music which follows the lineage of artists such as John Mayall, Jack

Bruce and Steely Dan, while also exploring the psychedelic soul sounds from modern bands such as Black Pumas and The Black Keys.

Chris provides vocals, piano, organ and sax, with New Orleans and boogaloo piano at the heart of the music. The tunes often stretch out into bruising rock,

improvisational extravaganzas — the four musicians feeding off one another to create a maelstrom of sound. Dark, brooding but also groovy; Chris Rand and the Heavy Echo are a fresh sound on the UK grass-roots scene with energetic live performances and electric chemistry on stage. 

Having already performed at the London Blues Festival, Endorset and Ealing Blues

Festival; as well as iconic venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, Green Note, The 100 Club and Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues Club, this new group is already off to a fabulous start. 

• Chris has performed and recorded with Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts, Nine Below
• Zero and Squeeze; Bad Manners, Ben Waters and Acantha Lang; James Hunter,
• Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Wonder 45, Tankus The Henge and Yolanda Brown.

Contact: chrisrandandtheheavyecho@gmail.com

📃 Review (The 229, London — January 11th, 2025):

Frontman Chris Rand, guitarist Leo Appleyard, bass player Chris Hanby and drummer Kyle Langley treated us to an exciting and tight 40 minute set that moved through the gears of blues, rock and jazz which set the tone for the evening.

There were defined songs in the set but a real feature was how the quartet improvised and fed of each other ramping up the vibe and creating a carpet of sounds. In one song in particular it stretched out into a blues come jazz jam, the 4 weaving together their sounds and climaxing with some exceptional sax tones.

Chris is a natural front man and a very talented musician taking vocals, keys and saxophone and I am certain he is chief songwriter.

Down In The Dark and Across The Year captured the band’s coda. The first as the title suggests dark and brooding the latter bruising rock that featured aggressive riffing from Appleyard on guitar and Rand on keys lifting up the powerful vocal and Appleyard then seized control with a towering solo.

Chris Rand and the Heavy Echo made a great impression and are a band I will now follow with interest. Nigel Foster (Blues in Britain)