Chris Sauthoff
(303) 885-6322 | Official Website
Listed under Guitar, World Music.
Chris “Citrus” Sauthoff began playing the violin in the fourth grade, quickly taking control of the instrument to become the first-chair violinist in his grammar, as well as junior high school, orchestras. However, left the instrument in the 7th grade, and it wasnít until he reached the age of 15 that he picked up a guitar. Again, with amazing quickness, he grasped the instrument and was the envy of the high school guitarists. His main influences at the time were Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Hazel, Michael Hampton, Garry Shider and Blackbyrd McKnight.
He attended Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota in 1988 as a guitar performance major. After a year of being the only ìlong hairî in the school and being placed on academic probation, he decided to leave, but was asked to stay and teach music appreciation. He realized, though, that he would learn much more in the school of life, and decided to head back to Colorado and follow his dream of being a professional musician.
Citrus played in many local Colorado bands in the early ‘90s, among them Red Moon Storm, Human Head Transplant, The Three Hip Horns, The Wild Angels, and the Stone Koolies, in which he played guitar and/or bass. He made a name for himself in Denver as a professional with a good work ethic. With a flair for performance, he incorporated light shows and dancers in the burgeoning underground music scene of the times, commandeering abandoned warehouses in the now-gentrified LoDo district, and putting on incredible events.
In 1990, he met with his first master musician and mentor, D.N. Shukla from Ghorakhpur, India. Mr. Shukla began training Citrus in the art of Hindustani Classical music on the sitar. Citrus studied ardently from the Pundit, playing the guitar as his teacher played the sitar, and in the process, he actually developed a method of stringing an electric guitar to sound very much like a sitar. Mr. Shukla gave Citrus insightful lessons on two separate trips to Colorado from his native India, and after the second session had ended, he simply smiled and told Citrus that it was his turn to travel next and go to India. He went to India twice, at six-month intervals, to study sitar in the Hindu Classical method.
In 1994, Citrus joined The Lord of Word and Disciples of Bass. It was at this audition that he was dubbed “Citrus” by the leader and head rapper of the band, Theo, who said his playing “sounded juicy.” Quickly becoming one of the key members and writers of the group, he worked on their first self-titled album. The Lord of Word ultimately became the best of the best in Denver for hip-hop as well as R&B and funk, performing in venues like the Ford Amphitheatre in Vail, the renowned Red Rocks Amphitheater in Golden, and Spring Break in Lake Havasu, Arizona. They also opened at First Avenue and Glam Slam in Minnesota for none other than Bootsy Collins. It was during this time in 1995 that he met his idols, George Clinton and the P-Funk Allstars. Apparently they saw something in him, for as The Lord of Word began to break apart with personal issues, P-Funk took him out on the road at the age of 25, just ten years after picking up his first guitar. Technically he was a part of the road crew as the stage manager, but he also got to play nightly in the group. Over the last decade, he has traveled the world with P-Funk, playing at the most prestigious venues and festivals, from The Montreax Jazz Festival, to the Fuji Rock Fest in Japan, as well as the legendary Apollo Theater. As a result, he‘s shared the stage with acts such as James Brown, The Cult, REO Speedwagon, the Doobie Brothers, Kid Rock, Joss Stone, Macy Gray, Maceo Parker, Outkast, Foxy Brown, Cyprus Hill, Erykah Badu, Ike Turner, Mahavishu and countless others.
Citrus has also played with the 420 Funk Mob, Drugs, T.H.C. Mercenaries, Varsity Squad, Sativa Clinton‘s Blaze Band and many other offshoot bands that periodically opened for George Clinton. He recorded anonymously on George Clinton‘s album T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M., and has some great video and musical moments on the recently released DVD and CD, George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic Live at Montreaux. He also performed sitar for P-Funk vocalist Kim Manning‘s new Love and Light Initiation CD, scheduled for release in the near future. He was also chosen by George Clinton to be guitarist for the Children of Production, a band built to showcase the talents of Kendra Foster and Sativa Clinton.
Feeling like he wasn‘t being used to his full potential in P-Funk, he ultimately decided to take flight on his own, beginning a new project, U.S. Pipe. In addition, he also entered a wonderful new venture entitled Yogadelic Meets Funkadelic, where he continued with his sitar work, combining yoga and funk music, two disparate paths that he feels is really one. Though U.S. Pipe Released a self titled album early in ‘09, both of those projects have now folded as well and Citrus is out there looking to make music with Grown Folk!
He has been teaching at Swallow Hill Music Association and teaching himself more genre‘s on the guitar. Namely Gypsy Jazz! Lately He has been playing with Hillbilly Inferno..Bluegrass and MUCH MUCH MORE