C and H is a soul/blues/classic rock duo based in La Jolla. According to the band, “We ONLY use an electric guitar with a loop pedal and a snare and ride cymbal, and we sound like a full band at times!”
Singer/drummer Jimmy C has fronted a number of bands, and has recorded three albums: Blues on the Rocks, La Jolla, and Dancin’ Feet, the latter recorded in Nashville and released on Tennessee label City of Peace Media. All three were coproduced by Motown engineer Jerry Marcellino (Michael Jackson, Diana Ross).
Guitarist Rick Harchol is a songwriter, producer, arranger, and recording engineer once signed to Vineyard Records (with the San Diego band The New Breed Worship Band). He previously played with Outlaw Blood, whose self-titled debut was released on the Atco/Atlantic label, and his songs have been heard on HBO, Discovery Channel, MTV, A&E, and more. His songs also appear in the 2010 film Four Stories of St. Julian, the 1993 film Arcade (starring Megan Ward, Peter Billingsley, and Seth Green), the 1994 movie Dragon World, and 1987's Son of The Last Surf Movie.
“We’re trying to make some decent money doing a Black Keys kind of thing,” says Harchol. Since the Black Keys’ Grammy wins in February 2011, Harchol says, “We’ve been experiencing an overall excited interest in what we’re doing, as opposed to a whole band, with lots of mouths to feed and excessive volume.”
Harchol and partner Carslake both sing, making for an economical Keys-like act that already lands several paying gigs per month.
Not that a two-man band is easy to pull off. “Jimmy has only a snare and ride cymbal for the drums, which makes it hard to be creative. With my guitar as the only full instrument, I’m using a loop pedal on the fly. Nothing is canned to create rhythms, bass, and sometimes percussion. This setup makes me vulnerable, requiring me to close the loop in perfect time; if I don’t, we can get hung out to dry. Plus, Jimmy has to listen closely to the loop as I’m building other elements and play in time with it or it throws me off.”
In 2011, they landed a Thursday night residency at Zenbu in La Jolla, as well as a Friday residency at the Zenbu in Cardiff-by-the-Sea.
Seven of their songs were heard in the 2014 film The Identical, starring Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, and Seth Green. The tunes also appeared on their subsequent album The Morph Kings.
“The first two songs were written in 2010 and were not intended for the movie,” says Harchol. “The first song we wrote, ‘Mellow Down Easy,’ is the opening song in the movie. The first thing you hear is my guitar...we also have the end-credit song, as well as five songs sprinkled across different scenes. The songs for the movie were written mostly between 2011 and 2012.”