Post by Henny Macc on Nov 21, 2020 1:16:01 GMT
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Curtis Skelton (December 1, 1973 - )
Years active: 1998?-present
Country of origin: United States of America
Recorded vocal range: G♯1-F♯5 (A♭1-G♭5) - 3⅚ octaves
Band history:
- 1998?-2003 - Speak No Evil (lead vocals)
- 2003-2008 - Impellitteri (lead vocals)
- 2007-present - Curtis Skelton (lead vocals, guitar)
- 2011-present - Big Richard (lead vocals, lead guitar)
{Other bands (years/roles unknown)}
- The Godfathers
- ERB
- ?-present - The Mighty General Population
Recorded high notes:
F♯5/G♭5: "Anti-Social Disease", "Punk"
D♯5/E♭5: "Floor", "Punk", "Superstition" live 2016
D5: "Countdown to the Revolution" live Club Citta 2004, "Dance with the Devil", "Sweet Nothing"
C♯5/D♭5: "Hard to Handle" live 2016, "Let's Get It On" live 2013, "Superstition" live 2016, "The Fall of Titus (American Metal vs Swedish Metal)"
C5: "Bulls on Parade" live Spinnaker 2014, "Crushing Daze", "Dance with the Devil", "Floor", "Small Words", "The Iceman Cometh", "We All Die Young" acoustic 2013
B4: "All Is Well", "Get Off", "Hurricane", "Judgment Day", "Propaganda Mind", "Punk", "Riddle", "Stood Low", "Sweet Nothing", "The Fall of Titus (American Metal vs Swedish Metal)", "The Writings on the Wall", "Too Intense"
A♯4/B♭4: "Anti-Social Disease", "Baby Got Back" live 2013, "California Love" live 2013, "Dance with the Devil", "Destruction", "Downside", "Lock You In", "Punk", "Resentment", "Roxanne" live 2018, "Stay Tonight", "Superstition" live 2013, "The Fall of Titus (American Metal vs Swedish Metal)", "The Iceman Cometh"
A4: "Back Porch Blues", "Countdown to the Revolution" live Club Citta 2004, "Crushing Daze", "Dance with the Devil", "Enter Sandman" live at Musician's Institute, "15 (Live My Life)", "Floor", "Get Off", "Invincible Man", "Judgment Day", "Play God", "The Writings on the Wall", "Too Intense"
G♯4/A♭4: "Anti-Social Disease", "Enter Sandman" live at Musician's Institute, "15 (Live My Life)", "Hard to Handle" live 2016, "Her Life Story", "Hold Your Breath", "Hurricane", "Let Go", "Let's Get It On" live 2013, "Lock You In", "My Confession", "Propaganda Mind", "Ready Dead", "Regulate" live Shreveport 2013, "Roxanne" live 2018, "Stood Low", "Sweet Nothing", "The Iceman Cometh", "Useless Wisdom", "Weather", "Welcome Home" live 2013, "Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound" Facebook video 2020
G4: "All Is Well", "Baby Got Back" live 2013, "Bring Your Body", "Crushing Daze", "Enter Sandman" live at Musician's Institute, "15 (Live My Life)", "Floor", "Her Life Story", "Lock You In", "Lunatic", "Resentment", "Stay Tonight", "Stood Low", "Thinking About You"
F♯4/G♭4: "Anti-Social Disease", "Bring Your Body", "Colder Weather", "Downside", "15 (Live My Life)", "Fly Away" Facebook video 2023, "Hold Your Breath", "Invincible Man", "Lie", "Lock You In", "Lunatic", "My Confession", "Pass the Power", "Play That Funky Music" live Shreveport 2013, "Regulate" live Shreveport 2013, "Riddle", "Superstition" live 2013, "The Fall of Titus (American Metal vs Swedish Metal)", "Thinking About You", "Too Intense", "Useless Wisdom"
Recorded low notes:
D♯3/E♭3: "Play That Funky Music" live Shreveport 2013, "Small Words", "Superstition" live 2013
D3: "Cigarettes", "Colder Weather", "Get Off", "Play God", "Thinking About You"
C♯3/D♭3: "Downside", "Fly Away" Facebook video 2023, "Hold Your Breath", "Hurricane", "Let's Get It On" live 2013, "Propaganda Mind", "Regulate" live Shreveport 2013, "Play That Funky Music" live Shreveport 2013, "Punk", "Stood Low", "Sweet Nothing"
C3: "The Iceman Cometh"
B2: "Bring Your Body", "Hold Your Breath", "Hurricane", "Lock You In", "Ready Dead", "Stood Low", "Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound" Facebook video 2020
A♯2/B♭2: "15 (Live My Life)", "Lunatic", "Resentment"
A2: "Colder Weather", "Downside", "15 (Live My Life)", "Fly Away" Facebook video 2023, "Get It Straight", "Riddle", "Useless Wisdom"
G♯2/A♭2: "Small Words"
F♯2/G♭2: "Too Intense"
F2: "Invincible Man"
E2: "Bring Your Body", "Floor", "Lie"
D♯2/E♭2: "15 (Live My Life)", "Invincible Man", "Regulate" live Shreveport 2013
C♯2/D♭2: "Invincible Man"
B1: "Hurricane"
G♯1/A♭1: "Invincible Man"
{Questionable notes}
A1: "Riddle"
A1: "Riddle"
.......................................................
*Green marks harsh/distorted screamed notes.
*Grey marks heavily fryish notes.
*Italics mark non-sung notes.
*Underlines mark notes in backing vocals or otherwise muffled/obscured in the mix.
{Detailed bio}
Curtis Skelton is a singer/guitarist perhaps best known for serving as vocalist for Impellitteri from 2003 to 2008, and singing on their 2004 album Pedal to the Metal. Though his recorded discography is rather small, he has definitely demonstrated some very impressive vocals on the three albums he has released, as well as the limited amount of live material I've been able to find by him. While his vocal range itself is quite impressive, what I would personally consider Skelton's greatest attribute as a vocalist is his versatility within that range, as he has proved himself capable of handling quite a variety of genres - including metal, grunge, rock, country, pop, and even rap. As a result, his recorded output features him utilizing a wide array of different vocal techniques and tones to accommodate these various styles.
I have been able to find very little information online about the origins of Skelton's career, but the first band of note that he worked with was the '90s grunge group Speak No Evil. This band allegedly originated sometime in the mid '90s, though I have not been able to find any sources on an actual starting year. Their debut album Speak No Evil was released in 1999, and featured a strong display of Skelton's range - particularly in the song "Floor", which spans E2-E♭5 in its melody, and nicely showcases both his low range and his high range. Other songs such as "Small Words" featured some tasteful Alice in Chains-esque vocal harmonies, with some audible Layne Staley influence on the thinner, gritty high parts, and some reminiscence of Eddie Vedder on the darker, smoother low parts. In 2001, Speak No Evil released their second album, Welcome to the Downside, which continued in a similar grunge direction, but now also began to combine it with elements of nu metal. On this album, shades of Corey Taylor and Slipknot can clearly be heard in both the vocals and instruments on the song "Riddle", as well as Rob Zombie on the song "Bring Your Body". In accordance with these growing nu metal elements, this album also featured Skelton dabbling in rapped parts on certain songs and distorted harsh vocals on others. Though the band's music sounds like it would have had potential to become very popular around its time period, they seem to have broken up at some point in the early 2000s (though once again, I have not been able to find an exact year anywhere), presumably when Skelton left to join Impellitteri.
Skelton made his first appearance with Impellitteri in 2002 on the track "Anti-Social Disease", on which he provided guest vocals alongside the band's at-the-time vocalist Graham Bonnet (which also made this track something of an anomaly in Impellitteri's discography, as no other songs by them feature two of their different vocalists singing together). The following year, Bonnet left Impellitteri for a second time, at which point Skelton took over as the band's full-time vocalist. In 2004, he released the album Pedal to the Metal with them, which stands out as something of an anomaly in their discography, due to the combination of some of Skelton's nu metal influences with Impellitteri's traditional neo-classical shred metal sound. This manifested in the form of more harsh vocals and breakdowns on songs like "Crushing Daze" and "The Iceman Cometh", and even a comedy rap-metal song "Punk", which vastly differed from the more serious, straight-faced style of most of the band's previous albums. However, other songs on the album featured clean, higher vocals reminiscent of previous Impellitteri vocalist Rob Rock, such as "The Writings on the Wall" and "The Fall of Titus". While Skelton has certainly proven himself capable of singing in the fifth octave, another thing that made him stand out as a distinctly different vocalist from Bonnet and Rock was his lower tessitura - while those two almost exclusively sang in the upper fourth and fifth octave on every song, Skelton mostly sang up to the upper fourth octave with occasional fifth octave notes, and used his low register more prominently than either of the other two. I would be particularly curious to hear how he sounded when performing songs by the other Impellitteri vocalists live, but unfortunately the only live footage I've been able to find of him with the band is a single 2004 performance of "Countdown to the Revolution". Considering that he sang with the band for five years, though, I'm sure there must be other recordings out there somewhere!
In 2008, Skelton left Impellitteri after Rob Rock returned to the band for a second time. Since then, he has somewhat disappeared from the spotlight, but still has stayed active as a musician in his local music scene around the Houston, Texas area. Though I have been able to find little information online about most of his post-Impellitteri projects, the one that seems to be the most publicized is the cover band Big Richard, in which he plays lead guitar and shares vocal duties with rhythm guitarist Tony Natalizio. This band has been active since at least 2011, and regularly plays covers of popular rock, pop, country, and rap/hip-hop songs, which allows Skelton to show off his versatility some more still. Though it's been less common to hear him bust out metal high notes in this band, his voice still appears to be in great shape, and he seems to be able to sing many of Big Richard's covers faithfully to their originals.
Aside from his work with Big Richard, Skelton has also been working as a solo artist for a number of years - currently mostly playing solo acoustic shows as a local Houston artist, but also occasionally recording music by himself or in collaboration with others. This has included a small handful of appearances on film/TV scores - including the songs "Thinking About You" from the 2002 film Insomnia, and "Back Porch Blues" off the 2013 soundtrack to the TV series Justified. The latter saw Skelton collaborating with his former Speak No Evil bandmate Danny Gill, with whom he also recorded the song "Her Life Story" in 2015. He seems to still be occasionally writing and recording original material (such as this 2019 song, possibly titled "My Confession"), but so far I have not heard about him releasing any more albums since Pedal to the Metal. However, if the day should come that he decides to do so, I would gladly welcome hearing more new music by him!
Curtis Skelton is a singer/guitarist perhaps best known for serving as vocalist for Impellitteri from 2003 to 2008, and singing on their 2004 album Pedal to the Metal. Though his recorded discography is rather small, he has definitely demonstrated some very impressive vocals on the three albums he has released, as well as the limited amount of live material I've been able to find by him. While his vocal range itself is quite impressive, what I would personally consider Skelton's greatest attribute as a vocalist is his versatility within that range, as he has proved himself capable of handling quite a variety of genres - including metal, grunge, rock, country, pop, and even rap. As a result, his recorded output features him utilizing a wide array of different vocal techniques and tones to accommodate these various styles.
I have been able to find very little information online about the origins of Skelton's career, but the first band of note that he worked with was the '90s grunge group Speak No Evil. This band allegedly originated sometime in the mid '90s, though I have not been able to find any sources on an actual starting year. Their debut album Speak No Evil was released in 1999, and featured a strong display of Skelton's range - particularly in the song "Floor", which spans E2-E♭5 in its melody, and nicely showcases both his low range and his high range. Other songs such as "Small Words" featured some tasteful Alice in Chains-esque vocal harmonies, with some audible Layne Staley influence on the thinner, gritty high parts, and some reminiscence of Eddie Vedder on the darker, smoother low parts. In 2001, Speak No Evil released their second album, Welcome to the Downside, which continued in a similar grunge direction, but now also began to combine it with elements of nu metal. On this album, shades of Corey Taylor and Slipknot can clearly be heard in both the vocals and instruments on the song "Riddle", as well as Rob Zombie on the song "Bring Your Body". In accordance with these growing nu metal elements, this album also featured Skelton dabbling in rapped parts on certain songs and distorted harsh vocals on others. Though the band's music sounds like it would have had potential to become very popular around its time period, they seem to have broken up at some point in the early 2000s (though once again, I have not been able to find an exact year anywhere), presumably when Skelton left to join Impellitteri.
Skelton made his first appearance with Impellitteri in 2002 on the track "Anti-Social Disease", on which he provided guest vocals alongside the band's at-the-time vocalist Graham Bonnet (which also made this track something of an anomaly in Impellitteri's discography, as no other songs by them feature two of their different vocalists singing together). The following year, Bonnet left Impellitteri for a second time, at which point Skelton took over as the band's full-time vocalist. In 2004, he released the album Pedal to the Metal with them, which stands out as something of an anomaly in their discography, due to the combination of some of Skelton's nu metal influences with Impellitteri's traditional neo-classical shred metal sound. This manifested in the form of more harsh vocals and breakdowns on songs like "Crushing Daze" and "The Iceman Cometh", and even a comedy rap-metal song "Punk", which vastly differed from the more serious, straight-faced style of most of the band's previous albums. However, other songs on the album featured clean, higher vocals reminiscent of previous Impellitteri vocalist Rob Rock, such as "The Writings on the Wall" and "The Fall of Titus". While Skelton has certainly proven himself capable of singing in the fifth octave, another thing that made him stand out as a distinctly different vocalist from Bonnet and Rock was his lower tessitura - while those two almost exclusively sang in the upper fourth and fifth octave on every song, Skelton mostly sang up to the upper fourth octave with occasional fifth octave notes, and used his low register more prominently than either of the other two. I would be particularly curious to hear how he sounded when performing songs by the other Impellitteri vocalists live, but unfortunately the only live footage I've been able to find of him with the band is a single 2004 performance of "Countdown to the Revolution". Considering that he sang with the band for five years, though, I'm sure there must be other recordings out there somewhere!
In 2008, Skelton left Impellitteri after Rob Rock returned to the band for a second time. Since then, he has somewhat disappeared from the spotlight, but still has stayed active as a musician in his local music scene around the Houston, Texas area. Though I have been able to find little information online about most of his post-Impellitteri projects, the one that seems to be the most publicized is the cover band Big Richard, in which he plays lead guitar and shares vocal duties with rhythm guitarist Tony Natalizio. This band has been active since at least 2011, and regularly plays covers of popular rock, pop, country, and rap/hip-hop songs, which allows Skelton to show off his versatility some more still. Though it's been less common to hear him bust out metal high notes in this band, his voice still appears to be in great shape, and he seems to be able to sing many of Big Richard's covers faithfully to their originals.
Aside from his work with Big Richard, Skelton has also been working as a solo artist for a number of years - currently mostly playing solo acoustic shows as a local Houston artist, but also occasionally recording music by himself or in collaboration with others. This has included a small handful of appearances on film/TV scores - including the songs "Thinking About You" from the 2002 film Insomnia, and "Back Porch Blues" off the 2013 soundtrack to the TV series Justified. The latter saw Skelton collaborating with his former Speak No Evil bandmate Danny Gill, with whom he also recorded the song "Her Life Story" in 2015. He seems to still be occasionally writing and recording original material (such as this 2019 song, possibly titled "My Confession"), but so far I have not heard about him releasing any more albums since Pedal to the Metal. However, if the day should come that he decides to do so, I would gladly welcome hearing more new music by him!
{Album ranges}
Speak No Evil
Impellitteri:
Speak No Evil
- Speak No Evil (1999) - E2-E♭5
- Welcome to the Downside (2001) - G1-E♭2-B♭4-B4
Impellitteri:
- Pedal to the Metal (2004) - B1-B2-F♯5
Original thread by Zedd Squared on TRP1.