Greg Grant: We Have Eyes
It's always difficult to try and classify Greg Grant's music - he is definitely a musician who is comfortable playing a variety of genres and he easily jumps from one to the other. This cd starts out with Greg playing slide guitar and a Rock/Acoustic Rock/Americana feel. The second song adds a Bluegrassy feel to it, by the third song he is into an African feel, ala Ali Farka Toure. Later on in the cd there are congas and dumbeks, saxophone and ebow, adding Jazz and a bit of Electronica into the list of genres he draws from. There is a lot of craftmanship and soul in all of the songs on this cd, both in the music and the lyrics. Most of "We Have Eyes" is very upbeat and earthy but by the end he takes us into a mellow, introspective, dreamy place, somewhere in outer or inner space. A great cd. Buy!
Greg Grant: Jupiter Watches
Organic and original genre crossing rock. Funky, jazzy, soulful, sometimes folky, sometimes electronic; psychedelic and full of feeling. This is an album that has a full sound but doesn't suffer from overproduction. Once again Greg played guitar, saxophone and sang with James Whiton on double bass and Guido Perla on drums. Many of the songs were recorded in the moment, capturing the feeling of three great musicians in a room just doing what they love to do - playing music. It's a rock album, but all three musicians are well versed in jazz and improvisation and this freedom definitely comes through. This is almost like an album and a half - the first ten songs feature the band playing upbeat songs, and the next five songs are just Greg, taking the listener deep inside. In this time of computerization and plastic disposable music, this is an album of real musicians playing real music with a real message. Buy!
