Chris DeClerk Band

Chris DeClerk’s musical roots run to the banks of the Eleven Point River, where the sound of the place seeped in early and never left. Now based in Little Rock, he fronts Weakness for Blondes as primary songwriter, singer, and lead electric guitarist, while maintaining an equally vital solo practice built around acoustic originals in the tradition of Levon Helm, John Prine, Jerry Garcia, and Eric Clapton. For DeClerk, stripping a song down to its most elemental form, voice, chord, and tempo finding their shape around a single acoustic guitar, is where everything begins. The Delta Soul Singers bring that foundation into full relief at the Arkansas Folklife Festival, where the blues and soul traditions DeClerk has spent a lifetime inhabiting come home to the Arkansas stage.