Chris Darrow Photograph - "Chico Cafe Sign" c. 1970s Framed 24" x 36"

Chris Darrow Photograph - "Chico Cafe Sign" c. 1970s Framed 24" x 36"

Well-known local musician, Chris was also an avid photographer, documenting his local habitat and his travels. 

Long before recording as a solo artist in the 1970s, multi-instrumentalist Chris Darrow was a well-known musician and trusted sideman in Los Angeles’ tightly knit music scene.

Proficient on guitar, bass, fiddle, violin, banjo, Dobro, lap steel, and mandolin, Darrow never actively sought employment as a musician, but the work always managed to find him. Darrow’s fingerprints remain in conspicuous corners of the public consciousness. His early career was spent playing in bluegrass combo, The Dry City Scat Band, with David Lindley and fronting rock ‘n’ roll group, The Floggs. Together with David Lindley, Darrow would go on to found revered psychedelic outfit Kaleidoscope, hailed by Jimmy Page as his “favorite band of all time.”

A stint with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band led to the formation of The Corvettes, which later resulted in long-term touring relationships with Linda Ronstadt and John Stewart. He contributed to pivotal session gigs with Leonard Cohen, James Taylor, and Hoyt Axton while crossing paths with Sly Stone, Sonny and Cher, Gram Parsons, Gene Vincent, Jim Morrison, Frank Zappa, and even Walt Disney and Hugh Hefner.

Son of artist, cartoonist, and Scripps College professor, Paul Darrow, Chris was born on July 30, 1944 and raised in the Los Angeles suburb of Claremont, California. Chris came of age with the sounds of Ritchie Valens and the Everly Brothers on the radio and was encouraged to explore his musical curiosities at a small, family-run music shop, Claremont’s Folk Music Center, where he purchased his first guitar at age 13. “The Folk Music Center was a godsend to a kid like me who wanted to play guitar and learn about folk music,” marveled Darrow. “You could take an instrument home and play it while you were paying it off.” Ben Harper, grandson of shop owners Charles and Dorothy Chase, would later record a cover of Darrow’s “Whipping Boy” as the lead single for his major label debut. After graduating from Claremont High School in 1962, Darrow attended nearby Pitzer College, where he spent two years assisting respected folklorist Guy Carawan, who was teaching an American Folk Life Studies course. Carawan is responsible for introducing the world to iconic protest anthem “We Shall Overcome.”