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Crosstown Arts presents Graber Gryass Album Release Show in The Green Room.
The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Thursday, May 11, 2023
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $15 in advance | $20 at the door
“If Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros relocated to Tennessee and sold their Burning Man innuendo for something more wholesome and Renaissance,we’d get the scene and sounds of Graber Gryass.”— Glide Magazine
“Funky, grassy, trippy sort of style.”— Bluegrass Today
“Like a Wokingman’s Dead or Basement Tapes outtake.”— Rock ‘n’ Load Magazine
“An immersive journey into an original expansive, exploratory song catalogue.”— VENTS Magazine
Waking Up, the third album of all original songs by Memphis jamgrass band Graber Gryass will be released on May 11, 2023. Waking Up has nine songs, all written by Michael Graber. “We wanted to push the boundary limits even more on this one, staying song-centered,” says Graber.
The album begins with a rambunctious saga of pent-up domesticity, “All the Time.” The pensive meditation “Morning on the Water” follows with lead vocals by Kitty Dearing. “Taproot” starts with a 12-string, followed with saxophone and hand percussion, and features guests Hope Clayburn and Jesse Dakota. “Waking Up” is an “Astral Weeks in Memphis”-type of dream song, about waking up in all connotations. “Living on a Faultline” finds the band at their funky best. Then Kitty takes the microphone again to lead “Hardcore Heartbreak”. Two more folk pop structured songs follow: “Okay” and “Good to You”. “Faultline”, a Carter-family inspired song about living on the New Madrid Faultline closes the set.
Graber Gryass includes Michael Graber (Guitar and Vocals), Kitty Dearing (Vocals and Saw), Andy Ratliff (Mandolin and Vocals), Andrew Geraci (Bass), Clint Wagner (12-string and Fiddle), Randal Morton (Banjo), Caleb Ryan Martin (High-strung Guitar and Baritone Banjo) with these guests: Jesse Dakota (Percussion), Hope Clayburn (Flute and Sax), and Joe Mahanahan (Vibraphone). The album was recorded at High/Low, engineered by Pete Matthews, mixed by Matt Qualls, and produced by Michael Graber.
Graber Gryass is an all-original, acoustic jam-grass band from Memphis, Tennessee. Take an award-winning writer, have him craft songs, and then layer in some of the regions hottest players, including a Winfield-winning banjo champion, the musical director of Public Enemy, members of such bands as Rumpke Mountain Boys, and others—and you have Gryass. This six-piece band can sing harmonies like the Mamas and the Papas, stretch out and jam like the Dead or New Grass Revival all while keeping audiences moving and inspired.
