 Whitley was working in a picture frame factory in New York City to make ends meet when a photographer friend invited him out for an afternoon photo session. During the shoot, Whitley was introduced to Lanois at a park on the East Side. After an afternoon of playing guitar, Lanois, best known for his production efforts for acts like U2, offered to put Whitley in touch with Columbia Records. Several months later, Whitley recorded his first album at the Lanois mansion/studio in New Orleans. This first effort, Living with the Law, was released in 1991 on Columbia Records and movie director Ridley Scott chose the single "Kick The Stones" for the Thelma and Louise soundtrack. Despite the commercial and critical success of Living with the Law, Whitley did not record again for almost three years. And when his second album was finally finished, it was a different Chris Whitley that greeted fans. Din of Ecstasy was a supercharged barrage of electric chords and distortion wrapped around the socio-spiritual lyrics that Whitley was well known for. It was a marked departure from the roots-rock sound of Living with the Law. Whitley's third album Terra Incognita (1997) is a mixture of ballads and edgy love songs and seems to be a happy medium between the bluesy rock of his first album and the grunge rock of his second album. The spare, bare -- bones effort, Dirt Floor, released in 1998, was a marked departure from Whitley's first three albums. Recorded in a cabin in Vermont, with Whitley playing dobro and guitar and keeping rhythm by tapping his foot on a floorboard, the resulting album was naked and soulful, marking Whitley's return to his blues roots. This simple, direct approach continued on Whitley's 2000 album Perfect Day, a collection weighted in favor of rock and blues standards that featured Whitley along with bassist Chris Wood and drummer Billy Martin of the acclaimed trio Medeski, Martin and Wood. A year later, Whitley signed with Dave Matthews' BMG - distributed label ATO Records, who released his latest album, Rocket House, the same year.
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