“Chris was the lead singer and front man for Lev­on Helm’s Barn­burn­ers for six years as well as fronting his own band.  He has also tak­en the stage with such lumi­nar­ies as Bob­by Keys, the Fab­u­lous Thun­der­birds, Jeff Healy, Albert Lee, James Cot­ton and more…making him a bonafide sea­soned pro­fes­sion­al.  We live in an age when every hot­shot gui­tarist, harp play­er, vocal­ist and so on, is tout­ed as the “real deal”, and the great­est thing since sliced bread.  In O’Leary’s case, the road­work, and all that goes with it, bears wit­ness to his love for the music and his deter­mi­na­tion to pur­sue a career doing what he loves.  7 Min­utes Late is, in my opin­ion, his strongest work to date.  Accom­pa­nied by his stel­lar band and a trio of guests, Chris burns his way through a dozen tunes, total­ing over 70 min­utes.  Often in albums of this length, there are a cou­ple tunes thrown in just as filler.  That is not the case with this one.   There is not a sin­gle weak tune on the disc.  O’Leary’s song­writ­ing is stronger than ever, his harp play­ing is off the charts, and his vocals are pas­sion­ate and pow­er­ful.  While this may not be strict­ly a blues album in the tra­di­tion­al sense, it is every bit a blues album. Chris draws from deep wells of expe­ri­ence in var­i­ous blues and blues-relat­ed styles.  This is the music that has filled road­hous­es for ages…thought-provoking, dance­able and incred­i­bly enter­tain­ing, 7 Min­utes Late is mas­ter­ful­ly done, from start to fin­ish.  From house­rockin’ tunes to soul­ful bal­lads, Chris & com­pa­ny deliv­er a set that is sure to be list­ed among the all-time greats.”  — Bill Wil­son, Reflec­tions in Blue

“With ‘7 Min­utes Late’ again Chris O’Leary deliv­ers a ver­sa­tile and very var­ied top blues/rock album. Nine­ty min­utes he fas­ci­nates, while dig­ging in all the musi­cal roots that he owns. All grooves come loose and, YES!, this O’Leary con­tin­ues to amaze!” — Excerpt from www.rootstime.be

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“On their sec­ond release [Wait­ing for the Phone to Ring], Mr. O’Leary and the band are a blues force to be reck­oned with. The songs, all orig­i­nals, show a range of influ­ences from Los Ange­les to New Orleans to New Jer­sey street cor­ners. Com­ple­ment­ing that range of songs is a band that treats each one with respect, always high­light­ing the music and not their own con­sid­er­able talents.”
— Nick Delay, WVKR

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“Chris O’Leary’s got it, man, he’s got it. From rol­lickin’ rock (Give It) to week­end stomp (With­out You) to slinkin’ down-lo back-alley swank (Louisiana Woman) to bar­rel­house bal­ladry (Pic­tures of You) and well beyond…and, lord, that’s only the first four of thir­teen cuts [on his sec­ond CD, Wait­ing for the Phone to Ring,] deliv­ered with piz­zazz, panache, plen­ty of pig’s feet n’ gum­bo, and more than a lit­tle pugilis­tic punch-up all through the blues’ back yard. His ace band knows how to cen­ter O’Leary’s vocals while parad­ing all around him, hot and hip but per­fect­ly in con­trol, ac-cen-tu-atin’ the pos­i­tive, the neg­a­tive, the ques­tion­able, and even the down­right nasty.”
— Mark S. Tuck­er, the Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange

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“Lev­on Helm’s singing har­mon­ica man leads his crew through a sopho­more set [on Wait­ing for the Phone to Ring] that is any­thing but sopho­moric. With a jun­gle blues vibe and pow­ered by non-stop ener­gy, this crew has got the blues right in the pock­et deliv­er­ing a fun, high octane set that makes the only col­or in blues blue. If you aren’t inter­ested in hear­ing about pick­ing cot­ton and fight­ing boll wee­vils, this is the stuff for you. Hot stuff.”
— Chris Spec­tor, edi­tor and pub­lish­er, Mid­west Record

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“Front man Chris O’Leary car­ries the group .….with a huge shout and force of nature har­mon­i­ca sound… he gen­er­ates authority.”
— Griel Mar­cus

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“O’Leary, for­mer­ly with Lev­on Helm’s Barn­burn­ers, is a more than capa­ble singer and Chica­go-style har­mon­i­ca styl­ist; the proof comes in the shuf­fles and jump num­bers he han­dles with suave assur­ance on his debut record­ing. It’s real­ly the slow tem­po of Blues is a Woman that draws out his best singing, rem­i­nis­cent of Jim­my With­er­spoon. His Hud­son Val­ley-based cohorts stir up the all-orig­i­nal mate­r­i­al with­out fal­ter­ing. Young gui­tarist Chris Vitarel­lo mer­its notice for his tech­ni­cal pow­ers and imag­i­na­tion, his reach extend­ing to rock­a­bil­ly and swing­ing jazz.”
— Frank-John Hadley, Down­beat Magazine

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“O’Leary and com­pa­ny have a laid-back sound, but their sol­id groove and tight ensem­ble play­ing and O’Leary’s superla­tive song­writ­ing make them a pow­er­ful unit.”
— J. Poet, Rovi

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“This cat spent a long time as Lev­on Helm’s side kick and you can tell he out­grew the out­fit. A first class singer/harp play­er, [Mr. Used to Be] is more in the tra­di­tion of But­ter­field but with­out the Chica­go edge … A win­ner throughout.”
— Chris Spec­tor, edi­tor and pub­lish­er, Mid­west Record

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“O’Leary, who has the crew­cut-and-mus­cles appeal of the for­mer Marine he is, is a force­ful harp play­er, a pow­er­ful singer and a nat­ur­al frontman.”
— Kay Roy­bal, Blues Revue Magazine

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“The Chris O’Leary Band offers a vir­tu­al ency­clo­pe­dia of road­house blues styles, from Boo­gie Woo­gie to South­side Chica­go elec­tric rockin’ to Louisiana Mar­di Gras stom­pers, on the enter­tain­ing Mr. Used to Be (Viz­ztone).”
— Jonathan Tak­iff, Philadel­phia Dai­ly News

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“Chris sings in a strong, clear voice and plays a mean harp … It is always good to see new acts writ­ing their own mate­r­i­al and not resort­ing to cov­ers of the usu­al sus­pects. The Chris O’Leary Band has pro­duced a var­ied CD which deserves to get them more atten­tion. A band to watch out for, in my view.”
— John Mitchell, Blues Blast Magazine

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“Mr. Used to Be, is a rol­lick­ing-good-time of a debut from Chris O’Leary, a big-voiced singer who coax­es a huge tone from his harp, and has all the skills of a nat­ur­al-born frontman.”
— Sheryl and Don Crow, Nashville Blues Society

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“O’Leary’s han­dling of his harp is fat, phat, and where it’s at, thick as a Geor­gia after­noon buzzing towards a swel­ter­ing hori­zon promis­ing gin joint delights and non-stop git-down. And that, cats ‘n kit­ties, is pre­cise­ly what’s deliv­ered… there’s a ton of class through­out [Mr. Used to Be], but it’s the tar­nished shine of fall­en angels grown more than world­ly. Would­n’t have it any oth­er way.”
— Mark S. Tuck­er, the Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange

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“In form­ing his own band, [O’Leary] has assem­bled a cast of pre­mier musi­cians from New York’s Hud­son Val­ley, and the fun they have play­ing togeth­er comes through on this debut CD [Mr. Used to Be]. So does Mr. O’Leary’s tal­ent as a song­writer on clever and orig­i­nal songs that could have come from a 60’s soul catalogue.”
— Nick Delay, WVKR

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“The Chris O’Leary Band’s Mr. Used To Be is a musi­cal tour de force from these top-notch road war­riors. [The CD] blends and sim­mers all its ingre­di­ents into a tasty musi­cal treat. It’s a trav­el­ogue of sorts, spot­light­ing stops along the high­way where these musi­cians gained expe­ri­ence, exper­tise and insight. All the parts add up to authen­tic, good time music cre­at­ed with care and love of the form. The feel­ing is contagious.”
— Jim Kanavy, Amer­i­can Blues News

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“Chris, while you and your fine band were play­ing I heard peo­ple say, “Who cares about the rest of the show, I just want to hear them all night!” What a strong and impres­sive set. The Blues World knows that you and your band rock, big time.”
— Bob Mar­golin