Chameleon Red

Listening to Chameleon Red can be a bit like putting your music player on shuffle; they're a study in contrasts. Rough-edged rockers rub shoulders with tender ballads with three-part harmony. Chameleon Red paint from a broad musical palette incorporating elements of rock, folk, soul, metal, and psychedelia into original songs full of infectious melodies, insistent rhythms, and heartfelt, intelligent lyrics.

The band is based in the mountainous northeastern corner of Tennessee, an area whose musical tradition runs as deep as the mountain hollows and is as rich and colorful as the leaves in October.

The band's ambitious debut album is entitled Transposition, a two-CD rock opera telling the story of Jack, a troubled young musician who wrestles with rejection, spiritual crisis, and ambition in order to discover his true and authentic identity. Honest, engaging, sometimes heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting, the opera includes songs that range from tender acoustic ballads to loud, aggressive rock. Transposition clearly bears evidence of Chameleon Red's diverse influences, which include the Beatles, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Marvin Gaye, and Pink Floyd.

Transposition follows in the footsteps of classic rock operas like Pink Floyd's The Wall and the Who's Tommy, with a heaping helping of music diversity. There's the arena-rock closer, "Stand Up", the intimately spiritual, acoustic "We Can Love", the soulfully philosophical, Marvin Gaye-influenced "What This Music For?", the Beatlesque rocker "Could Be Me", and the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink climactic suite, "Choices".

Transposition is also the impetus for the formation of the band Chameleon Red. The opera, conceived and written by vocalist/guitarist Brian Hearl, started out as a solo project. But what would have been his eighth solo album morphed into a group effort as he drew in past collaborators and friends to help. Chief among them was John Franjione, a musical comrade whose vocal, bass, and keyboard talents brought a funky, yet melodic color to the music.

Collectively, Chameleon Red is about the pure desire to create music and forge community in an increasingly fragmented and alienated culture. Transposition exemplifies this approach, a work created simply because it had to be.