Graber Gryass is an all-original, acoustic jam grass band from Memphis, TN. The band is hitting the pageant circuit as quickly as potential. They launched their first LP, Late Bloom, in October 2020. The second LP, Spaceman’s Wonderbox, hits the market late Spring of 2021. Take an award-winning poet and revealed writer, have him write songs, after which choose a few of the areas hottest gamers, together with a Winfield-winning banjo champion, the musical director of Public Enemy, members of such bands as Rumpke Mountain Boys, Satan Practice, Left Unsung and others—and you’ve got Gryass. This six-piece band can sing harmonies just like the Mamas and the Papas, stretch out and jam just like the Lifeless or New Grass Revival, whereas protecting audiences transferring and impressed.
Music Descriptions:
‘Drifting Away’
When you’ve gotten Randal Morton as a banjo participant you want a flat out burner of a tune. Randal kicks off Drifting Away. The story finds an anguished father making an attempt to bless and warn his daughter in regards to the immense risks and transformative expertise of falling in love. The obsessive verses are pushed into overdrive with the refrain, chords inflicted by a Gene Clark or Chris Hillman music construction. Eric Lewis, Clint Wagner, and Andy Ratliff add some excessive, driving concord singing on high of the fiery selecting.
‘Satan’s Bought Your Title’
A person walks right into a bar …orders a drink. The man he demonizes, the one who stole his spouse is sitting there, torn up. The Satan has been dumped, too, by the identical lady. They discover they’ve the identical tattoo of the identical woman in the identical place on their our bodies. Then, their Ex enters the bar with the Divorce Lawyer on her arm. Nation surrealism as a day-drinking melodrama, stuffed with despair. This tune was initially written for Professor Elixir’s Southern Troubadours, however by no means performed or recorded. PEST alumni, Brian Collins, joins the band for top concord singing and 12-string sweeps.
‘Idiot Dwelling Fallacious’
One other broke down marriage music. Stroll a mile within the sneakers of a person who constructed his dream home within the nation solely to lose it in a divorce and be ceaselessly to “stare in from the chilly.” He takes on the earth by means of a damaged lens. Michael leads this one on a 12-string. Sizzling banjo and plaintive fiddle all through. Guitar and mandolin spherical out the leads.
‘Extra to Lose’
Bother in weddingland continues. Extra to Lose is an nearly dishonest music, a tune about temptation and its excessive, heartbreaking value. As my mother advised me, “in the event you play with hearth, you’ll get burned.” Eric performs dobro. JD Westmoreland steps away from the blending board to play mandolin. Gia Welch provides the siren concord vocals.
‘Wind that Shakes the Cotton’
This music goes again a methods. It was written for my eldest little one, my daughter Jesse, when she was only a woman (She’s a mother now). She at all times had a robust will. The standpoint of the music is from the younger man courting her. I knew them that whoever beloved her needed to be steadfast and passionate. Chord constructions listed below are a bit expansive, impressed by the early New Grass Revival or Dillard & Clark, however with a Memphis sensibility. Notice that Andy Ratliff performs bouzouki and David Pierce performs mandolin. Eric performs lead guitar. Nathan Breckenridge performs bass.
‘When the Water’s this Low’
Simply curious. Has anybody else ever entered the breeding grounds of cottonmouths? It’s a quicksilver journey to the twilight zone.
I skilled this adrenaline-upping insanity as a boy and it’s haunted me ever since. 100s of snakes in ropes bundles in a cypress grove determined to guard their floor. The music is reality, count on the demise on the finish. And I had a fever, so it was surreal.
I’ve written a poem about it and now a music. I’d love to listen to about your expertise. Perhaps we will begin a assist group?
Notable listens; Nathan’s excessive tenor signing. Andy’s reptilian bouzouki enjoying. Eric’s dobro chunk.
‘A Fable’
This meditation on generations is an early music, written initially when Michael was 19 years previous. He relearned it from a 611 EP, modified it a bit for his weekly Microdose collection. Many of the musicians on the observe couldn’t consider the sound of the 12-string was in commonplace tuning. Michael doesn’t know the names of most of the chords on this music.
Gerald Stephens on Harmonium, Khari Wynn on lead guitar, and Andy Ratliff on mandolin make it craving, exploratory, and expansive.
‘Drinkin’ 40s’
It’s odd however lovely sitting at Wild Payments being completely sober, which is how I wrote this music. I haven’t had alcohol in a very long time. The folks, relationships, and motivations simply offered themselves and I couldn’t take notes quick sufficient for this music, Drinkin’ 40s. Boo Mitchell stated “sure! That’s the unique beat field” when mixing the music and he heard Jason jug solo. Boo was dancing and smiling whereas mixing. We bought it in a single take, therefore the vocal coda tag.
‘Late Bloom’
Late Bloom is an instrumental written to honor the musicians on the session. The A Half is nearly in 6/8 whereas the B Half returns to 4/4. Bouzouki and Guitar open the tune, then Randal takes the banjo break into outer house. Nathan performs bass on this one and slaps and tickles it. Eric Lewis performed dobro. David Pierce was on mandolin.
Late Bloom is the world view of the songwriter, who waited till age 50 to report an LP of all unique tunes.
‘Marijuana’
The joke’s on me. Folks at all times ask me in regards to the band identify Graber Gryass. One joker known as it Seize Her Ass. Most method me a wry, hopeful tone and ask “the place is Graber’s grass?” This may make the underside drawer of the merch desk extra worthwhile. Our first single is for them, Marijuana. Actually, it’s simply time for an anthem for this plant medication!
It’s co-written by my bandmaster from 611 and Professor Elixir’s Southern Troubadours, Brian Collins. Brian sings concord and performs a sweeping 12-string on within the observe.
‘Forgotten What I Name House’
The grief of dropping a beloved prematurely to demise fuels the loss, ache, and redemption of the speaker on this music. Whereas this music locates itself within the American South, it additionally unveils the paranormal curtain between waking actuality and Dreamtime. Such ache makes us see patterns and that means in nature that we usually don’t discover. Solely singing about it retains us sane.
‘Oaks & Pines’
One other early music, written when Michael was 20 after getting misplaced in a mountain in Alaska, simply after writing his Final Will & Testomony. It was the primary time I ever had an actual, palpable sense of house, the that means of affection, and the aim of native vegetation in reminiscences. We’re formed by our habitats so deeply, however solely later grow to be conscious of it. This was the primary music recorded within the session and was beforehand performed by Fatback Jubilee (a band that included Michael, Eric, Andy, Clint, and David from these periods).
