Jack is trying very hard to piece together the details of his life for you, dear interested reader. It's a difficult process, wrought with many complications. We know that he comes from a very nice family with a cuckoo clock and a waterfall in the backyard. It all seemed to be going just fine, but then, of course, college ruined everything.
After a little detective work, we learned that Jack formed his first band, Steak, in 1993 while living in Boulder, Colorado.
A four piece, Steak's sound was formulated from the eclectic and sometimes bizarre musical tastes of its members. As they began to attract large audiences in Boulder, the group was inspired to tour the country. They visited nearly every state in the union, drinking everything in sight and befriending many dogs. Moving the unit to San Francisco in '94, Jack and the gang hung out on the west coast for a spell.
After years wandering the West, Jack longed for his homeland. Returning to New York, Steak's sound took a decidedly country turn. Inspired by this new direction, Jack decided to go it alone and see where he landed. This "Lonesome Entertainer" has come a long way from those salad days at the Sidewalk Café, playing solo performances before largely intoxicated groups of Happy Hour patrons. Releasing his debut CD, Introducing The Sounds Of Jack Grace, our hero took Steak off the grill and focused primarily on his solo performing efforts.
Introducing… found Jack tackling acoustic guitar, accordion, banjo, harmonica and vocals. While recording and performing live, he was accompanied by upright bass and female vocals. The album was warmly received in the New York City area, but after years of performing with Steak, Jack found himself longing for a bigger sound. From that need came the sound of the Jack Grace Band, growing larger every day. It can be heard, and even felt, by a growing number of fans, human and buffalo alike, with each passing week. Now it's your turn.
http://www.myspace.com/jackgraceband
http://www.myspace.com/vanhayride
Daria "Battleaxe" Grace, nee Klotz, does her best to keep her husband in line, but it's not an easy job. He leaves dirrty dishes in the sink and his desk is a total disaster.
This raven-haired chanteuse has entertained New York's music fans for years with stints in the Moonlighters and God Is My Co-Pilot. Currently a member of Kings County Queens and Melomane, with whom she lends her wonderful vocal talents and plays bass and ukelele. Daria recently acquired an upright, which will be great for us fans but for our heroine, probably a huge pain in the arse to lug around.
The uke is definitely more mobile, which was probably her main motivation to form the Pre War Ponies. Either that or she finally got around to performing some tunes from her extensive sheet music collection of some pretty cool old ditties.
Besides the sheet music, Daria is an avid collector of shoes, vintage clothing, records, CDs, books, tea, shoes and shoes.
To check out what she's doing when the hubby ain't around, visit:
http://www.myspace.com/4stringgal
http://www.myspace.com/melomane
Georgia-born, NYC-dwellin’ Bill Malchow left his heart in New Orleans. He plays things with keys but has not been known to play strictly keys that belong on chains, as in house keys or car keys. We’re talkin organ, piano, accordion and maybe even the harpsicord or clavinet. It’s hard to say. Bill definitely plays in different keys too, which is always a nice thing.
He has many nicknames like "Sweet William, Blackbeard, Brother Bill, Bad Food, Lippy the Pants and Captain Bill". The Captain has his own thing going on too, leading his own bands, playing those keys and singing songs he likes. He digs Professor Longhair, Memphis Slim and lots of other folks and has a beard (it’s black).
http://billmalchow.com/
http://www.myspace.com/billmalchowmusic
Russ "The Fuss" Meissner is the drummer. He is Canadian born. He wears glasses and has been currently experimenting with facial hair.
The Fuss is an accomplished jazz drummer and plays country music not as a jazz drummer nor as a country drummer, but just as Russ. I guess what we are saying is that Russ is truly an original drummer amongst drummers.
He drums a drum unlike other drummers who drum drums.
Russ plays the drums.
There are a lot people named Jason Bowman out there on the Google. I found a city councilman in Nebraska who was running for the state legislature. There is also a dude who works at the Young Adult Ministries, which sounds sort of creepy. Another guy by that name lives in Ohio and has a really obnoxious background on his MySpace page.
None of those guys are the right guy, though. The right guy is our own J-Bird, resident of Woodstock, drummer and disturber of the peace. It was inevitable that he find his way into the hearts and minds of the denizens of Jack Graceland. We’re all in real deep trouble right about now.
Jason is also a member of the 5 Points Band, and he is awesome.
http://www.myspace.com/jbirdbowman
http://www.fivepointsband.com
Mike Neer has ears. So says Jason "J-Bird" Bowman, and presumably he wsan't talking about the human auditory system. Nah, it's about Mike's harmonic sensibilities, musical chops and stuff like that.
Mike has had kind of a weird journey to Jack Graceland, much like every other member of the band. He cut his teeth on rock and roll in the early days, fed a burgeoning appetite for jazz while a teen, then realized he really dug Hawaiian music and picked up the Hawaiian steel guitar, which he played with the Moonlighters. He was even the leader of a New Orleans-inspired R&B band complete with a horn section. The lap steel finally found its way to Mike, and the rest is history.
We don't know where we find 'em either; we just do.
Nearly everything Jack learned about banjo picking he learned from Tom Hanway. The group's only member to live in another country, Tom has been picking away for over 20 years, establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with both in New York and the old country (Ireland — at least it's the old country for many of us).
On his first recording, Bucket of Bees (an alarming title to be sure but hopefully not an autobiographical one), Tom moved comfortably between bluegrass, celtic, and jazz. He's a published author, singer and country blues guitarist and in his spare time founded the Big Apple Bluegrass Festival before relocating to Erin. In addition to all that great stuff, he really is an amazing dude.
Earl Poole Ball - a.k.a. Mr Honky Tonk Piano (Piano, obviously)
Earl is the real deal. Besides being a master of Honky Tonk, he easily moves among various genres like Country Blues, Delta Rhythm Boogie, Gulf Coast Boogie-woogie, Rockabilly and hard driving Country Rock. He's worked with the likes of Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, Linda Ronstadt, Gram Parsons (performing on The Byrds and Gram Parson's album "Sweetheart of the Rodeo"), Lee Hazelwood,The Flying Burrito Brothers, Buck Owens And The Buckaroos, Marty Robbins, Mickey Gilley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and of course Johnny Cash, with whom he spent over 20 years as a member of the Johnny Cash Show, playing just about everywhere you can imagine.
John Sebastian (Vocals)
You've heard John Sebastian (whether you know it or not. Kids today...) When the dog days roll around, you're sure to hear (Hot Town) "Summer in the City" at least once a week. Then there's "Do You Believe in Magic?" Answer: sometimes. Or "Daydream" or many more hits by the Lovin' Spoonful that go all the way back to those storied times, the '60s! John is a Woodstock guy now, and he's still out there playing for the himself and the fans, and that's what it's all about anyway.
J. Walter Hawkes (Trombone)
J. has been playing horns for a while, in his trio and on the Cartoon Network, in a way, having composed music for "Oogloo And Anju". Mr. Hawkes also plays the uke and sings, which makes him seem a lot like Daria, yet not. His trio even played at Jack and Daria's wedding. That was a good time. J. can be heard on the upcoming Drinking Songs for Lovers, which features Mariachi horns. Yes, Mariachi horns. You'll love it.
Rob Henke (Trumpet)
The other half of the horn section, Rob is the second midwesterner to bring his musical talents to the latest JGB incarnation (J-Bird being the first). He's worked with some groups that have fascinating names like Gary Lucas' Fast and Bulbous, the Likeable War Criminals and Dr. Nerve. Like Mr. Grace, he is also an actor and as such performs and co-directs a theater company called Good Clean Fun. We don't know about that kind of fun because we like ours a little soiled.
Doug Largent (Bass)
Doug helps out on bass when Lady Daria ain't around. He also accompanies her in the Pre-war Ponies, keeps the beat with Van Hayride and pals around with some other bands as well. Like most of the other characters in this crew, Doug is pretty versatile and likes to veer off the Country lane into funk, rock, jazz and even Zydeco.
Bruce Martin (Vocals)
That Bruce Martin gets around. He's played with more bands than we probably even know about, but you're likely to have heard of a few of them. Way back in the day, Bruce played with Tina Weymouth and Chris Franz in the Tom Tom Club. He gets it on with Tandy and the Dirty Water Dawgs and lots more. He sings; he drums; he makes all of us happy. What a great guy! Really, we really, really mean it. Bruce is the kind of person that just makes a great time even better.
