Chris DeVito – “Lend a Helping Hand” – the music and the narrative will absorb you
Some artists build a personal, intimate bond with their listeners through their music. Chris DeVito’s music oscillates between somber, blue and deeply pensive right to the other end of the spectrum, sounding like sheer existential passion committed to record. On her 2019 album, “Beyond the Great Big Sky”, we savored plenty of the aforementioned elements. Armed with not much more than her voice and acoustic guitar, Chris delivered personal fragments and emotions of life’s intricacies. Now the Brooklyn, NY singer-songwriter is working on her sophomore album. In the meantime she released the single “Lend a Helping Hand”, during March. The single was written about the pandemic, and all that has been endured up until this time.
“I lost my father to Covid-19 in April of 2020,” explained Chris DeVito, “which is why this song has a very deep meaning for me and holds a special place in my heart.” The cover artwork candidly states: “Dedicated to the millions lost, the families they left behind and the heroes that tirelessly tried to save them…” The song’s yearning heart becomes an important signpost to guide listeners into its deep emotionality and disconcerting, but motivational landscape.
Of course, it’s just brilliant to hear Chris DeVito’s resonating, but down-home voice, set against something as ubiquitous and complementary as the acoustic guitar and the subtle piano interludes.
The song is powerful in its gentleness, presenting the strength of Chris’ eloquent grace and deep sentiments. It’s remarkable how many different emotional dynamics she can extract from the track’s sparse arrangement and instrumentation.
The result is an organic musical arc that carries the listener through every stage of the pandemic. She guides listeners through loss, pain and indignation, to a hope rooted in the human ability to love, help and support one another.
Chris DeVito’s accomplishes all of this with minimalist instrumentation and the confidence of her voice. “Lend a Helping Hand” is an exquisite record from an artist with full command of her most precious instruments; her voice, her words, and her guitar.
In a music industry crammed with nothing but a bunch of bombastic pop and explicit prose, sprinkled with hedonistic melodrama, Chris DeVito sounds like a breath of fresh air. Her singer-songwriter stylings hark back to a purer sounding time in music, where folk blended with roots and Americana flavorings.
Her persistence in exploring the substance of her art and her undying devotion to the lyrical and storytelling aspect of work, are all qualities which set Chris apart from her contemporaries, who are mostly lost in the search for style.
Chris DeVito is so adept at distilling her thoughts and emotions into music, that listening to her feels like you’re stepping into her psyche. “Lend a Helping Hand” gives you a strong idea of Chris DeVito as a performer and her dimension as a songwriter. When you listen to this single, the music and the narrative will just absorb you. “Lend a Helping Hand” makes a loud statement.
