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Sounds of Apartment Life: The Music of Cantinero

Cantinero with his Jack Russell terrier Max and his redbone coonhound Ruby, who can be heard on the song "Tuesday."
Ned Wharton, NPR
Cantinero with his Jack Russell terrier Max and his redbone coonhound Ruby, who can be heard on the song "Tuesday."
New York's Lovely Studios, also known as Chris Hicken's apartment.
Ned Wharton, NPR /
New York's Lovely Studios, also known as Chris Hicken's apartment.

Cantinero is the musical pen name of British singer-songwriter Chris Hicken.

A veteran of a number of English bands, Hicken earned the nickname -– the Spanish word for "bartender" –- while tending bar in New York for many years.

He recently released his debut CD, Championship Boxing, a collection of introspective pop songs recorded in New York's Lovely Studios -- which happen to be a spare bedroom in the singer's New York apartment.

The CD captures the sound of city apartment life: dripping taps, background television and the barking of Hicken's own coonhound Ruby.

NPR's Sheilah Kast recently visited Hicken's Lovely Studios to talk about his music.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Sheilah Kast
Sheilah Kast joined NPR in November 2003 as the weekend newscaster for "PBS/NPR Newsbrief," the hourly 30-second television news reports produced by NPR for PBS stations.