When Chris Berardo started hitting the Austin, Texas, music scene more than 20 years ago, his connection to the city and its people quickly progressed into playing several times a year, with it becoming a “second musical home” for the Connecticut-based singer and songwriter. While playing some shows with his longtime band, the DesBerardos, and the Austin-based Reckless Kelly, the band’s guitarist, and Berardo’s producer, suggested he record his fourth album in Austin.
“It was kind of a natural thing for me,” recalls Berardo, who released his third album, Ignoring All the Warning Signs, in 2006. “We just knew the terrain and the studios down there were great, and it meant that we were able to have guests come in.”
Along with special guest and friend, Texas singer-songwriter Walt Wilkins, Berardo was also backed by longtime DesBerardo band members, including guitarist and brother Marc Douglas Berardo, “Handsome” Bill Kelly on guitar and vocals, and Reckless Kelly bassist Joe Miller and drummer Jay Nazz, along with Lloyd Maines on pedal steel, Bukka Allen on organ and piano.
Recorded at Cedar Creek Studios, Wilder All the Time is a timeline of life, love, grief, and a sense of continuity for Berardo from the opening crack of “The Last Great Chance” and the more nostalgic “Take Me Back,” released in 2024 and inspired by the more carefree days of childhood, and a health scare he had years earlier, which put his career on hold indefinitely.
Wilder All the Time embraces the warmth of Berardo’s Americana and country-rock roots, tapping on some heartland beats with “Wanda Leigh,” a song Berardo has played live for years, while effortlessly shifting in and out of ballads like “Try Love” and “Take A Little Love,” which navigates a simpler sentiment, he says, of “living in the moment and remembering to be thankful.”
Videos by American Songwriter
Titled after a line in the closing slow rocker, “Nothing Greater,” Wilder All the Time took nearly two decades to reach and is an apex in Berardo’s career, earnestly reinforcing an already heartfelt and universal songbook.
“There’s an arc to it and a little story,” says Berardo of Wilder All the Time. “As I was writing, it did occur to me. Then, you step back and you realize what you’ve done. It’s like a painter who’s too close to a painting before they step back and see what has emerged.”
Berardo continues, “I just feel super hopeful. Some of that came from a long struggle to get this made, and a couple of false starts. David [Abeyta] calls it ‘good drama’ when you’re making a record. You don’t want cheesy drama. There are so many good moments, if you find them, of the human condition, of trying to pull yourself up, and that’s what we do best.”
For Berardo, songs always come from somewhere personal but end up with some farther reach. “It’s all about something that’s banked, some emotion that’s in there from various experiences, and then there’s a second phase where I sort of erase the obvious parts of myself to make it so it’s universal,” shares Berardo.
“It’s personal, but universal enough that it could be everyone’s experiences,” he continues. “We all have the same fears, desires, and happiness. It isn’t just about this girl down at the lake who broke my heart. Everybody’s had their heart broken, but not everybody’s been to the lake.”
[RELATED: Chris Berardo Finds the Christmas Spirit on “This Year,” Covers Holiday Classic]
Years after releasing his debut album American Dust in 1997, followed by Pure Faith (2003) and Ignoring All the Warning Signs (2006), Berardo was diagnosed with cancer, overcame it, then tested the waters again, releasing “Somewhere Blue” in 2019 and more singles in the years leading up to Wilder All the Time.
Now, time and experience have helped him arrive at a point that’s “fuller,” creatively and personally. “I think of the word vulnerable,” says Berardo. “You get a lot more comfortable with getting down to who you really are. Experience also allows you to not always write about the thing on your mind at the moment. I can write something that’s ostensibly a love song, but it’s touching on a bigger theme. The breath of that comes from living.”
Lyrically, Wilder All the Time pieced together naturally for Berardo, including “Nothing Greater,” about a relationship that’s “so old it’s fresh,” he says. “It doesn’t get old,” he adds. “It’s got all the upside of the experience and the commonality, but it still feels new every day. And I’ve had other things like that in my life, and how I was feeling at the time about my music career.”
Creatively, Wilder All the Time has given Berardo more self-validation in some way. “I think I’m hitting a little sweet spot where I’ve got the experience, and I know how to do this,” he says. “I know where all the buttons are, and I understand this vehicle, and I’m still crazy about doing it. I’m not bored and feel excited about it all the time—every day. I feel so ready and lucky. And I feel like that in my life.”
He adds, “I’m not 25, but I feel, in all the good ways, wilder. It feels better being wild and having fun. I’m better equipped than I was 20 or 30 years ago, because now I know some of the secrets. And I still feel all the good kinds of crazy.”
Photo: Tod V. Wolfson
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.