Chappy's sound isn't easily classified because it ecompasses so many influences. All of the band's music centers around singer/songwriter Michael Wagner's guitar style. Think of Wagner as a self-taught Mississippi John Hurt who's strongly influenced by guitarists like Ani Difranco, Leo Kotke, Django Reinhardt and a bit of flamenco. On their first album, Chappy mixes folk, jazz, blues, and even a little hip hop to create a sound that's at once familiar and new. The album's first track "Floodwaters" became an eerie account of many people's experience during hurricane Katrina. Why was it eerie? Well, Michael Wagner wrote the song with his brother Robert in 2002, 3 years before Katrina hit New Olreans. This is Chappy's only album with the saxophone-bass-guitar-drum lineup. Hurricane Katrina swiftly dispatched this incarnation of the band, however that's not where Chappy's story ends. It continues with the Shallow Seas...(http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/chappy2)