Chris Funk

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Christopher Funk
Funk in April 2009
Background information
Origin	Valparaiso, Indiana
Genres	Folk, folk rock, country rock, indie rock, bluegrass
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter, record producer
Instrument(s)	Vocals, guitar, pedal steel, piano, violin, dobro, hurdy-gurdy, autoharp, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo, saxophone, theremin

Christopher Funk (born November 28, 1971) is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist best known as a member of the Portland, Oregon, indie rock band The Decemberists.^[1] He plays guitar, pedal steel, piano, violin, dobro, hurdy-gurdy, mandolin, saxophone, the theremin and many other instruments. According to Colin Meloy, as stated at the Pilgrimage Festival in Franklin, TN on September 27, 2015, Funk was originally given the middle name "Ryman" but a clerical error on his birth certificate resulted in his middle name being recorded as "Lyman."

Early life

Funk attended Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is originally from Valparaiso, Indiana.^{[citation needed]}

Musical career

Funk joined the Decemberists after meeting Colin Meloy at a solo show Meloy was performing. He has been a member of the band since its formation, appearing on every Decemberists record since. Funk most commonly contributes guitar, pedal steel, and mandolin tracks to the band's songs, though he has laid down tracks with several other instruments as well. After an incident in which the band's equipment trailer was stolen in 2005, Funk wrote "This Machine Kills Thieves" on his banjo, in reference to Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.

He is a member of Knock-knock with DJ Rev. Shines (from the hip-hop group

On December 20, 2006, Funk appeared on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report to end a longstanding mock feud with the show's host, Stephen Colbert. A contest ensued in which Funk and Colbert would each play a guitar solo while a panel of judges decided the winner. After Funk's solo, Colbert (who cannot play the guitar) feigned an injured hand, having Peter Frampton fill in for him instead. The contest ended with Colbert/Frampton being decided the winners by show guests Eliot Spitzer and Henry Kissinger, and Colbert was awarded The Crane Wife by The Decemberists as the grand prize. Funk then performed an "all-guitar jam" alongside Frampton, Robert Schneider (of The Apples in Stereo), and Rick Nielsen.

Discography

The Decemberists

See: The Decemberists discography

Black Prairie

• Sugar Hill Records
  , 2010)
• The Storm in the Barn (self-released, 2012)
• A Tear in the Eye Is a Wound in the Heart (Sugar Hill Records, 2012)
• Wild Ones (Captain Bluegrass, 2013)
• Fortune (Sugar Hill Records, 2014)