CHRISTOPHER WATKINS - BIO

Christopher Watkins' poems have appeared or are appearing in The Atlanta Review, The Massachusetts Review, Harpur Palate, Hayden's Ferry Review, and more. Famished, his second volume of poetry, was published by Pine Row Press in February 2024. His debut volume, Short Houses With Wide Porches, was published by Shady Lane Press (a program of The Jack Kerouac Writer-in-Residence Project). He received his MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry from the Stonecoast MFA Program at The University of Southern Maine. Watkins is also an award-winning songwriter with 13 albums released under the name Preacher Boy. His songs have appeared on dozens of albums, as well as in films, TV shows, and commercials. He currently lives in Santa Cruz, CA, and has previously resided in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle, as well as in the west of Ireland.

PREACHER BOY - BIO

Preacher Boy mines the dark edges of Contemporary Blues and Americana with his signature raspy voice, virtuoso National slide guitar playing, and darkly poetic lyrics.

From his genre-bending debut on Blind Pig Records to his latest album on Coast Road Records—his 13th overall—this relentlessly pioneering artist continues to both honor and extend the country blues traditions that inspire him, while infusing his sound with influences ranging from punk rock to political folk. Preacher Boy helped create, define, and advance “alternative blues” as a genre that also spawned artists ranging from Chris Whitley and Alvin Youngblood Hart to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and G. Love. Faster and Louder has called him “the godfather of alt. blues.”

Melody Maker described his sound as: “Country blues that marry Nick Cave, Robert Johnson, Woody Guthrie and Tom Waits,” and legendary music publication MOJO declared that, “Preacher Boy is a songwriter of startling originality.”