Just a man and his guitar.
That’s what you can expect when you buy a ticket to the latest in the ONE series at the Averitt Center for the Arts, which will feature local musician Chris Mitchell.
Mitchell grew up in Hagan, and graduated from Claxton High School. He went on to earn a BM in Music from Georgia Southern University. While a student at GSU, Mitchell studied classical guitar and voice, and performed the first student guitar recital at the university, and he was key to the development of that program.
Mitchell also studied graphic design, which he utilized to meet the design needs of his musical endeavors. His first design, in 1996, was the logo for his Pladd Dot Music Store in Statesboro.
As a singer and songwriter, he has toured the Southeast for more than 20 years. While he was still in college, Mitchell released two albums with his band Wallace Green, with bandmates Brian Hendrix and Larry Summerlin.
Pladd Dot opened in 1999 as a studio for guitar lessons that operated out of Mitchell’s apartment. The business moved to its first location in 2002. In 2005, the same year that Mitchell married his wife, Ashlee, the business moved to a second location to add retail space. In 2008, the business moved to its current location, a 7,000-foot facility that added music lesson rooms, a larger retail space and a recording studio.
In 2012, Mitchell launched a manufacturing division of Pladd Dot Music to manufacture guitars and amplifiers in the company’s 7,500 square foot factory, also in Statesboro. The products are sold under two brands: Chris Mitchell Guitars and Devilcat Amplifiers. CMG has been awarded the National Association of Music Merchants “Best in Show” award. Both are now distributed nationally and internationally.
Mitchell still performs with his band, the Chris Mitchell Band, which includes some of the finest musicians in the area. Members include Ryan Kelly on bass, Matt Fallin on percussion and Keith Barber on guitar. The band also includes Mitchell’s wife, Ashlee.
In addition to performing, Mitchell also teaches about 20 students a week, and manages Pladd Dot Music, Pladd Dot Publishing, and the manufacturing of CMG and Devilcat. There are about 150 students currently enrolled at Pladd Dot Music for music lessons, and the store has a bustling retail business as well.
The Mitchells call Statesboro home, along with their French bulldog, Packer.
As for his upcoming ONE performance, Mitchell said it will be an intimate experience featuring him and his guitar, and will be told from a singer/songwriter/storyteller perspective.
“I’m going to be performing works from my catalog since I was 18 years old until the newest song that will be written that week,” he said, calling that song, “one of those that I had to write because it needs to be heard.”
When asked to describe what he wants the show to be, Mitchell pauses.
“It’s going to be vulnerable. It’s going to be told through the lens of a songwriter. There’s going to be tears and laughter, there’s going to be a little bit of both. It’s not going to be as dark as ‘(the) pieces of smalltown,’” he said, referring to the album he released in 2019. “I’ve decided to just be a captive storyteller that night.”
Mitchell said he is well aware that many people know him as a guitar player, singer and performer. But he is hopeful that this performance will give them a new perspective.
“I think they’re going to have a different outlook. I would like them to walk away with an ‘oh wow.’ I would like them to walk away with them seeing it in a different light, songwriting. What I want to achieve with this concert is that I want people to think about music more as it is, truly an art form, not just entertainment — to really look at the songwriting from maybe a different perspective.”
Mitchell says he wants the audience to see a “bunch of different sides of him” as an artist.
“The first song that I’m going to perform I wrote when I was 18 years old, and that way, they can sort of see the development, you know, and the actual progression of how things run,” he said.
This is one of the few concerts that Mitchell has chosen to do during the past two years, as the world has dealt with the pandemic.
“It’s important to me enough that I’m happy to do it, you know? And I hope that we all have a great time,” he said.
ONE: Chris Mitchell will begin on Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. at the Averitt Center for the Arts’ Emma Kelly Theater. Tickets are $20, and can be purchased by calling 912-212-2787, at the theater box office, or online at averittcenterforthearts.org.
