Eugene Chadbourne
Eugene Chadbourne (born January 4, 1954) is an American banjoist, guitarist and music critic.
Eugene Chadbourne

Schorle · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Eugene Chadbourne
- Born
- 4 January 1954
- Birthplace
- Mount Vernon, New York, U.S.
- Occupation
- Musician and music critic
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Eugene Chadbourne (born January 4, 1954) is an American banjoist, guitarist and music critic.
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In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Eugene Chadbourne • Born — 4 January 1954 • Birthplace — Mount Vernon, New York, U.S. • Genre — * Avant-rock • avant-garde jazz • free jazz • Occupation — Musician and music critic • Instrument — Banjo, guitar • Years Active — 1976–present • Website — eugenechadbourne.com/
Life and career
Life and career
• Illustration — Chadbourne in Aarhus, Denmark, 2015 Chadbourne was born in Mount Vernon, New York, but grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He started playing guitar when he was 11 or 12 years old, inspired by the Beatles and hoping to get the attention of girls. Although he was drawn to Jimi Hendrix and played in a garage band, he found rock and pop music too conventional. He gravitated to the avant-garde jazz of Anthony Braxton and Derek Bailey. Braxton persuaded Chadbourne to abandon his intention to enter journalism and instead pursue music. During the early 1970s, he lived in Canada to avoid military service in the Vietnam War. Returning to the United States, he moved to New York City in the mid-1970s and played free improvisation with Henry Kaiser and John Zorn. Around this time, he released his first album, Solo Acoustic Guitar. In the early 1980s, he led the avant-rock band Shockabilly with Mark Kramer and David Licht. Chadbourne explored other genres, playing with a Cajun band and a Russian folk band at a festival in Winnipeg. He mixed country, Western, and improvisation in the band LSD C&W. For many years he was in a duo with Jimmy Carl Black, who played drums for Frank Zappa. He has also worked with Han Bennink, Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp, and Charles Tyler. A solo album, Songs (Intakt, 1993), featured politically oriented originals, such as "Hello Ceausescu", and covers, such as Nick Drake's "Thoughts of Mary Jane", Phil Ochs' "Knock on the Door", and Floyd Tillman's "This Cold War With You". Chadbourne invented an instrument known as the electric rake by attaching an electric guitar pickup to a rake. He played a duet of electric rake and classical piano with Bob Wiseman on Wiseman's 1991 album Presented by Lake Michigan Soda. He also played the instrument on a Sun Ra tribute album.
Identity
Identity
Eugene Chadbourne is recorded with the occupation jazz guitarist. Recorded with the occupation music critic. Recorded as a citizen of United States. Classed in the genre jazz.

Eugene Chadbourne and Joe Sachse in concert at Club W71 Weikersheim, september 2019.
Schorle
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1954–2014
The full dated record · 5 entries
1954
Eugene Chadbourne was born on 4 January 1954.
1992
Eugene Chadbourne and Tony Trischka Live at Cicero's Basement Bar on 1992-06-18 (1992) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
1995
Eugene Chadbourne and Jimmy Carl Black live at The Berkeley Cafe on 1995-06-16 (1995) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
2009
EUGENE CHADBOURNE - May 28, 2009 - TRUST LOST MUSIC SERIES - Enemy - Chicago (2009) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
2014
Eugene Chadbourne at Cafe Oto, London 17-04-2014 (2014) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
Books
• Dreamory (The House of Chadula, 2013): a 1000+-page book that is a collection of Chadbourne's diaries from his teens to his tours and including his dream diaries
Discography
NB: Eugene Chadbourne's complete discography totals over 400 album releases between 1976 and 2026. • Volume One: Solo Acoustic Guitar (Parachute, 1976) • Volume Two: Solo Acoustic Guitar (Parachute, 1976) • Improvised Music from Acoustic Piano and Guitar with Casey Sokol (Music Gallery Editions, 1977) • Volume Three: Guitar Trios (Parachute, 1977) • Don't Punk Out with Frank Lowe (QED, 1979) • 2000 Statues and the English Channel (Parachute, 1979) • Possibilities of the Color Plastic with Toshinori Kondo (Bellows, 1979) • There'll Be No Tears Tonight (Parachute, 1980) • Torture Time! with Polly Bradfield Concert recorded at Logos Studio, Gent, Belgium on April 2, 1981 (Parachute, 1981) • Blues (Parachute, 1984) • Country Music of Southeastern Australia (RR, 1984) • Dinosaur on the Way (self-released, 1984) • The President; He Is Insane (Iridescence, 1984) • Country Protest (Fundamental, 1985) • Corpses of Foreign War (Fundamental, 1986) • Camper Van Chadbourne with Camper Van Beethoven (Fundamental, 1987) • LSD C&W – The History of the Chadbournes in America (Fundamental, 1987) • Dear Eugene, What you did was not very nice, so... Kill Eugene (Placebo, 1987) • Kultural Terrorism with Rosenberg (Dossier, 1987) • I've Been Everywhere as The Doctor Eugene Chadbourne (Fundamental, 1988) • The Eddie Chatterbox Double Trio Love Album (Fundamental, 1989) • Country Music in the World of Islam Volume XV (Fundamental, 1989) • Blotter LSD C&W 2001 (Delta, 1992) • Chadbourne Baptist Church (Delta, 1992) • Hot Burrito #2 with Werner Dafeldecker and Walter Malli (Extraplatte, 1993) • Strings (Intakt, 1993) • Songs (Intakt, 1993) • Locked in a Dutch Coffeeshop with Jimmy Carl Black (Fundamental, 1993) • Nismegen Hassen Hunt (House of Chadula, 1995) • The Acquaduct (Rectangle, 1996) • Boogie with the Hook (Leo, 1996) • Jesse Helms Busted with Pornography – The C&W Opera by Eugene Chadbourne (Fire Ant, 1996) • Psychad (Swamp Room, 1997) (limited to 500 copies) • Patrizio with Paul Lovens (Les Disques Victo, 1997) With Noël Akchoté • Lust Corner (Winter & Winter, 1997) With Han Bennink and Toshinori Kondo • Jazz Bunker (Golden Years of New Jazz, 2000) With Evan Johns • Vermin of the Blues with Evan Johns & The H-Bombs (Fundamental, 1987) • Terror Has Some Strange Kinfolk (Alternative Tentacles, 1992) With Henry Kaiser • The Guitar Lesson (Les Disques Victo, 1999) With John Zorn • School (Parachute, 1978) • Environment for Sextet with John Zorn, Andrea Centazzo, Tom Cora, Toshinori Kondo, Polly Bradfield (Ictus, 1979) • In Memory of Nikki Arane (Incus, 1996)
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- MusicBrainz artist record for Eugene Chadbourne
Scholarly · MetaBrainz Foundation
reference work
- “Eugene Chadbourne”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q919367: Eugene Chadbourne
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Hightower, Laura. Contemporary musicians. Volume 30: profiles of the people in music. Gale Group. 37–9. 2001. 978-1-4144-1313-6.
- 2.Ankeny, Jason. Eugene Chadbourne. AllMusic.
- 3.Yanow, Scott. The Great Jazz Guitarists. Backbeat. 43. 2013. 978-1-61713-023-6.
- 4.Kennedy, Gary W. Chadbourne, Eugene.
- 5.Mason, Stewart. Shockabilly: Vietnam/Heaven > Review. Allmusic.
- 6.Green, Jim. Shockabilly. Trouser Press.
- 7.Marginalarts.com. Welcome to the FREE STATE of Marginal Arts.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
MusicBrainz artist record for Eugene ChadbourneMetaBrainz Foundation
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,934 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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