Alex Jordan‘s Queen Kerosene is a melting pot of American roots music, stacked high with sharply-written songs that blur the boundaries between genre and generation. Helmed by four-time Grammy Awards winning producer (and longtime Los Lobos member) Steve Berlin, it’s a colorful, kaleidoscopic record whose songs make room for soul, Tex-Mex, groove-driven R&B, Americana, jazz, honky-tonk, and heartland rock & roll.
Before Jordan released his own music, he earned his stripes as a multi-instrumentalist, playing with bands on the West Coast for the better part of a decade. He was a musical Swiss Army knife — a road warrior whose ability to play guitar, piano, and Hammond B3 organ had already landed him onstage with icons like Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Peter Rowan.
The fine art of bluegrass and the music of the Grateful Dead have been linked before the Dead even existed. Any fan knows that bluegrass was the foundation of Jerry Garcia’s lifelong commitment to his craft. He would later revisit it in 1973 with the short-lived, yet very influential project, Old and in the Way. It finally came back around in the early 90’s when Garcia/Grisman was formed. Even when bluegrass wasn’t at the forefront for Jerry, it was always a factor just beneath the surface.
Grassomoxoa (a clever nod to the 1969 GD album, Aoxomoxoa) is comprised of four men who are extremely passionate about bluegrass and the Grateful Dead. The idea of merging these two entities is nothing new. However, the way in which they approach it instills the songs with a fresh and vibrant energy. Riley Hill (guitar), Bud Dillard (mandolin), Isaac Cantor (banjo) and Scotty Brown (bass) are old friends who embody the sort of freewheeling spirit that Jerry himself held dear.
You’ve seen them in their other bands, including: Grateful Bluegrass Boys, Dusty Green Bones, One Grass Two Grass and Electric Tumbleweed. Here we’ll see them delve deeper than ever before into the far corners of the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia songbook. You can count on a magical combination of both traditional string music and progressive jam explorations. It will be just like a late-night picking session around the fire.
