Ash Grunwald in Nanaimo

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Thursday, July 16th, 2015
7:30 PM

Ash Grunwald (born Ashley Groenewald, 5 September 1976, Melbourne) is an Australian blues musician. He has built a strong reputation in Australia and internationally based on his live shows and festival performances.

Grunwald drew attention as a solo artist with the release of 2002's "Introducing Ash Grunwald” - a collection of originals and blues standards that included "Smokestack Lightnin'" (Howlin' Wolf) "The Sky Is Crying" (Elmore James) and "Rolling And Tumbling" (Robert Johnson) recorded live with only acoustic guitar and foot percussion consisting of a stomp box and tambourine.

The album also includes "Dolphin Song," which is based on an actual encounter Grunwald, a devout surfer, had with a shark and the pod of dolphins that came to his rescue.

The positive response to Grunwald's debut resulted in two Australian Blues Awards (The Chain Awards) for 'Best Emerging Talent' and 'Male Vocalist of the Year' in 2003.

In 2004 Ash released his follow up album I Don't Believe - once again recorded solo and live. Heavily influenced by Tom Waits - the album emulates Waits' experimental bang and clang percussion using hammers, spanners, pots etc., in addition to a boss loop station as a bed for his lap steel, dobro and acoustic guitars.[2] The album included six originals, two Waits compositions, "Going Out West" and "Jesus Gonna Be Here" (a cappela with hand claps) and blues standards "Walking Blues" and "Cross Roads" (Robert Johnson), "Empire State" (Son House) and "How Many More Years" (Howlin' Wolf).

On the strength of this release Grunwald received an ARIA Award (the Australian “Grammy Awards”) nomination for 'Best Blues and Roots Album' in 2004,

For the Live at the Corner album (songs from his first two releases plus Willie Dixon's "Spoonful" featuring Ian Collard on harmonica) Grunwald won the 2005 MBAS Vic / Tas and Australian Blues awards Album of the Year in addition to being nominated once again for the 'Best Blues And Roots album' at the 2005 ARIA Awards.

In August 2006 Grunwald released Give Signs recorded on his own record label, Delta Groove Records. As with preceding albums it was recorded live and solo which received another ARIA Award nomination for 'Best Blues and Roots Album’. In 2006, Grunwald supported James Brown at his Tasmanian concert.

Ash released his next studio album, Fish Out of Water in August 2008, with the album reaching No. 43 on the Australian charts. The new album was greeted with positive reviews with many of the critics saying it is one of the best blues/roots albums of the year and a career highlight for Ash. Many of the songs on the album gained a hip hop edge to Ash's traditional Delta blues. Several tracks gained significant airplay on the national youth broadcaster Triple J some of these included "Breakout", "Devil Called Me A Liar" and "Joke on Me". The album was also nominated 'Best Blues and Roots Album' at the 2009 ARIA Awards.

The single "Breakout” was a staple in the Australian radio charts throughout the year.

The single “Longtime” also charted with a video featuring Xavier Rudd and members of legendary Australian band Spiderbait.

At the beginning of 2013, Ash teamed up with members of Australian punk band The Living End to record a version of Gnarls Barkley's ‘Crazy’ - which was released as a free download through Ash's website to act as an interesting, musical curiosity for fans. 'Crazy' ended up being picked up by Australian radio and became an unexpected hit. The unplanned success of the single took the three back into the studio where they played around with some of Ash's existing tracks, adding a driving rhythm section to some of his more well-known songs and to the writing of two brand new tracks "The Last Stand" and "Acting Cool". The collection of tracks ended up forming the heaviest rock album of Ash's career to date, Gargantua, which was released in June 2013.

In 2014, Ash was awarded the LA Music Critic Award for Best International Act.

In late 2014, Ash headed back into the studio, this time taking with him Ian Perez keyboardist for Wolfmother. Under the guidance of famed American Producer Nick DiDia (Springsteen, Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam, Powderfinger) an intense focus was brought onto the structure of song composition, to record an album that has been described sonically as 'psychedelic blues using synth rather than stringed bass' and conceptually as 'strongly political, rumbling from the depths of internal rage.’ The new album NOW will be released in Canada in July 2015.

The video for the first single from the new album, “River” is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHqPHcICGTo

Fading in with the ominous sound of Ash’s adored moog synthesizer, the power of ‘River’ rises to a swinging platform that remises how the average human with mere hopes of clean drinking water is considered now an extremist. Full of groove ‘River’ bounces towards a wall of sound to bang your head on in frustration for a Government trying to divide it’s people; a reminder that division amongst a country’s citizens creates a smokescreen for Governments to sneak behind unnoticed to make their corruptions law.

Finding inspiration in the famous words of David Suzuki ‘We all live downstream’, ‘River’ observes the unavoidable impact we have on each other as ‘one people, one planet, one circumstance’ and encourages that impact to be full of wide-eyed support of each other rather than naïve collaboration for corporate greed and government lies.

The sign of a truly artful protest song is its capacity to connect far beyond the already converted and bore into the hearts of the unaware and the ignorant. It warrants a mind willing to zoom out from the tangled minutia of an issue and encapsulate the raw corruption at the heart of all wrong-doing. Ash Grunwald’s exploration of greed and destruction over the past two years has culminated in the forthcoming album NOW, represented here for the first time with it’s debut single ‘River’, a powerful reminder that we all live together and everybody lives downstream.


“It is almost impossible not to be transported into Ash’s world, where the relationship between a grinding guitar and a stony, rock-strewn voice is all that is needed to convey absolute exhilaration.” - Jmag

"Grunwald's playing is impressive and he rarely lets a good groove go to waste" - Herald Sun

"Ash Grunwald is one of the best."
- Australian Guitar Magazine

“…funky, heavy, rootsy soul beats, and that’s not even mentioning Ash Grunwald’s rustic soul voice.” - Sunday Telegraph

www.facebook.com/AshGrunwald
www.ashgrunwald.com

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AARON JAMES & THE BLACK WATER 

Aaron James and the Black Water is a two-piece band from Nanaimo BC. Their music is what you would expect from a little island where it rains most of the time… paradoxical. They are a real blend of modern and vintage and are considered to be “Neo-Soul” or “Alternative-Blues.” Question Mark of Question Mark and the Mysterians said, “America needs more vocalists like you…” in a telephone conversation between Aaron James and the legendary rock n roll singer.

AJATBW resides with Risqué Disque Records and have completed their next single “Change” yet to be released. A release date has not been decided but a video has been shot for the single as well. Producer, Shawn Hall (of the Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer) says, “An achingly soulful plea for movement in one mans Cyclical strife, reminiscent of the hooks of Aloe Black and the story telling of Citizen Cope.” About Change.

www.aaronjamesandtheblackwater.com
www.facebook.com/AaronJamesandtheBlackWater
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQmpFjk8wI8

Tickets available at ticketweb: http://goo.gl/NeeTAf
and at Fascinating Rhythm, The Queens.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1602971543306889/