Harp
"Chris Whitley captures heaven on Hotel Vast Horizon. Recorded in Germany with drummer Matthias Macht and bassist Heiko Schramm, Whitley distills the stripped, ethereal nuance that imbued his Messenger debut, Dirt Floor, applying just a bit of the spit-shine of earlier works such as Living With the Law and even 2001's Rocket House. Each song is dosed with enough hypnotic soul to render a listen rapt and unconscious (to be sure, the guy writes some knockouts). Whitley's spectral vocals and stinging, robust guitar and banjo work (who works a National like Whitley?) again transcend measure, leaving one to speculate as to who posesses the deed to his soul (surely, there has been divine, if not diabolical, intervention). These various talents comprise Whitley's actual gift: the avbility to transport an audience to a place of still beauty with ambrosial air. If it's not the heaven we're admonished to seek, then it must surely be the Hotel Vast Horizon."

Vanity Fair
"Chris Whitley has never stopped recording good, authentic work; that tradition continues on Hotel Vast Horizon."

CMJ New Music Monthly
"Chris Whitley is a master of the National Steel guitar, a difficult instrument that (literally) slides between acoustic and electric blues. It's a description that also fits Whitley the artist, always caught in the distance between styles... He sounds more at home on Hotel Vast Horizon's set of quietly captivating originals. It's a spacious, dark album, full of understated tension and simmering passions, focused on images of desire, corruption and wanderlust."

Washington Post
"Both the elliptical reveries of his lyrics and the push-and-pull tension of his guitar parts produce blues unlike any you've ever heard."

New York Press
"Hotel Vast Horizon is a fascinating new album from the ambitious bluesman, and is refreshingly direct."

Chicago Daily Herald
"Chris Whitley has reutrned to his acoustic roots on the lovely Hotel Vast Horizon. The disc's stark intimacy is reminiscent of Whitley's brillilant Dirt Floor, which featured Whitley alone in a farmouse on guitar and banjo."

Boston Globe
"Chris Whitley has been one of the scene's semi-buried treasures over the past decade."

RollingStone.com
"Hotel Vast Horizon spotlights the singer-songwriter's quieter side, similar to Dirt Floor, but with a richer, busier musical backdrop."

Philadelphia Daily News
"Yes, a lot of acoustic blues guys' music sounds alike. Not so the edgy, experimental stuff put forth by dobro master/vocalist Chris Whitley and his band... The acoustic country blues original and his band break bravely into Hotel Vast Horizon (Messenger), an intimate, eccentric set recorded in Germany with superb engineering. Grade: A-"

Entertainment Weekly
Tony Scherman
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

CMJ New Music Monthly
Matt Ashare
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Billboard Magazine
Bradley Bambarger
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

RollingStone.com
Andrew Dansby
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

All Music Guide
Stanton Swihart
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

People Magazine
Steve Dougherty
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Austin CitySearch
Jeremy Reed
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Barnes&Noble.com
Roberta Penn
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Sonicnet.com
Bliss Bowen
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Guitar.com
Buzz Morison
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Checkout.com
Michael McLaughlin
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Weekly Planet
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

DIRT FLOOR PRESS:

Billboard Magazine
"Chris Whitley's 'Dirt' Takes Root"
By Bradley Bambarger
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Dallas Observer
Robert Wilonsky
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Philadelphia Inquirer
May 29,1998
By Tom Moon
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Austin American-Statesman
**** (four stars)
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Guitar Player
July, 1998
Chris Whitley "Dirt Floor"
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Guitar Player
July, 1998
"Songcraft: Chris Whitley"
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Request
May, 1998
by David Sprague
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Guitar World Acoustic
Chris Whitley
Dirty Work
by Jim Coen
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Album Network
Blues Corner
by Matthew Lawton[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Hits
March 27, 1998
Chris Whitley "Dirt Floor" (Messenger)
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Guitar Magazine
Chris Whitley
Dirt Floor (Messenger)
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Smug
April 1998
by Mitch Myers
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Billboard, March 14, 1998
WHITLEY STRIPS HIS SOUND BARE ON 'FLOOR'
Acoustic Album Marks Artist's Debut On Messenger
By: Bradley Bambarger
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Raleigh News & Observer
Simple Interest
By David Merconi
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Chicago Tribune
Not quite the usual blues
By Greg Kot
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

FOCUS Magazine
Chris Whitley
Dirt Floor
By Virginia Reed
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Spin Online
CHRIS WHITLEY:
Up off the Killing Dirt Floor
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Entertainment Weekly
Chris Whitley Dirt Floor
April 3, 1998
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

People Magazine
Dirt Floor
Chris Whitley
4/13/98 issue
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Hour Magazine
RED INTO BLUES
Chris Whitley Bleeds the Delta
by Carl Wilson
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Pittsburgh City Paper
The Long Way Home
Chris Whitley chooses a circuitous musical path.
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

CMJ Music Magazine
BEST NEW MUSIC
Chris Whitley "Dirt Floor" (Messenger Records)
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

Time Out New York
CHRIS WHITLEY
Wetlands; Wednesday, April 22
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

SOUND BITES: Album Review
Wednesday April 15 1:13 PM EDT
By Gary Graff
Chris Whitley "Dirt Floor"
(Messenger Records) 4 stars
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

UNCUT MAGAZINE
WHITLEY'S DIRTY BLUES: by David Fricke
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]

The Boston Phoenix
Moody blues
Chris Whitley's scrapyard lullabies
by Matt Ashare
[Click Here To Read Entire Review]