Band As Community, Community As Band

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Good Graces are more of an evolving collective of great musicians, rather than a solid lineup of a few people. What I love about Atlanta is the community feel of the music scene and the mutual admiration and support a large group of musicians and bands give each other. Almost to the point of incestuousness.

A couple of recent events have highlighted this fact:

1) Thunderbox, one of the main rental rehearsal spaces in Atlanta, closed, a victim of in-town redevelopment activity. Bands in other rehearsal spaces reacted and reached out to help with everything from helping folks move their gear out, to temporary storage for displaced bands' equipment, to offers of rehearsal spaces.

2) Organizers of The Happenstance just announced there would be no 12th event. The collective musical shudder and sigh in the Atlanta area was palpable. The Happenstance was an 11-year holiday/charity/musical institution that for one day each year, created 6 new bands out of musicians who had never played together before, had them go off and create 3-4 new songs and learn a cover tune, then come back in the evening and perform to a standing room-only audience whose entry fees went to fund local charities. The connections and friendships formed through this event bound many of us from across musical genres together in ways that is hard to describe.

I participated in three Happenstances; 2006, 2011, and 2013. Kim Ware was a drummer in the 2006 event and, though we weren't paired in the same band, it was my introduction to her. She would shortly release her first Good Graces album and I would shortly join her collective.

On this tour, in addition to Kim, I will also share the stage with two other incredible musicians; John McNicholas (guitar, bass, vocals) and Tracy Clark (bass, guitar, glockenspiel, melodica, percussion, vocals).

I first met John just after he arrived in Atlanta from Tampa, Florida. I was a co-host of the Atlanta Songwriters Series, then a weekly singer/songwriter event held at the Aurora Coffee location in Virginia-Highlands (moved later to Kavarna), and John performed one of his first Atlanta shows at our event. I instantly fell in love with his songs and guitar work. John joined several bands, including Mary O. Harrison's band the Tiny Tears that Kim Ware was the drummer.

John was one of the first to join the Good Graces when Kim was putting together a live group. He has been a constant presence in the Good Graces ever since, both live and on recordings. John has also contributed to one of my Sensitive Chaos tunes, Seeker After Pattern's "Simon Stilites Dreams of Rain." And I joined John's band, The Sunset District, for both live shows and recordings. John is also a Happenstance alum.

When I first started Sensitive Chaos, my idea was to make it a duo, in the mold of Yaz. Synth-pop electronics with vocals. The vocals part of the equation never got off the ground and until recently, Sensitive Chaos has been totally instrumental. But one of the people I spoke to about the idea (though she may not remember it) was Tracy Clark, bassist/multi-instrumentalist and singer for Silent Kids, the Blue Hour, Mary O's Tiny Tears/Virginia Plane, Chickens and Pigs, and The Preakness, among others. Tracy is also a Happenstance alum. And she has been one of the Good Graces collective for awhile.

So a band from the same community of friends. A group of friends from the same bands. So far so fun!

The Good Graces Open For The Indigo Girls

I'm reviving my blog. It's been dormant since after my last solo record, Sensitive Chaos Amerisynthecana, was released back in 2013. There is much musical activity going on right now, and I need a place to document it. I'll thank myself for it later.

Yes, there is a new Sensitive Chaos album in the works, with four songs mixed and ready, another handful of songs ready to be mixed, and two songs that need a few overdubs. More on that in a later post.

And yes, I've been having great fun performing out with several bands including the Good Graces, The Sunset District, and Blackfox. It is the Good Graces that is kicking me into action at the moment and will be the primary subject of this blog for the next month.

You see, the Good Graces have been invited to open for the Indigo Girls for five dates in June, and I have been invited to occupy the keyboard seat for the Good Graces for this two-week tour that will also include a mess of shows in and around the Indigo Girls dates, up and down the central part of the U.S.

So, we (Kim Ware, John McNicholas, Tracy Clark, and I) are two weeks away from hitting the road, and I'll be attempting to document all the activity that is going into preparing for our tour. Not only the logistical, but also the emotional and the technical aspects I have personally been going through. There have been lots of all of this so far, and I'm sure they'll be lots more before we're done.

Here's the announced tour schedule so far:

Sunday, June 14 – tGG, Nashville, TN, East Room (with Granville Automatic & Wyatt Espalin) 9pm

Tuesday, June 16 – tGG, Daytrotter.com, Rock Island, IL (day session), & Second Unitarian Church, Chicago, IL 7:00pm

Wednesday, June 17 – tGG opening for Indigo Girls, Grand Rapids, MI, Mejer Gardens 7pm

Thursday, June 18 – tGG, Kalamazoo, MI, Old Dog Tavern (with Valentiger) 9pm

Friday, June 19 – tGG, opening for Indigo Girls, Ann Arbor, MI, Summer Festival (Power Center) 8pm

Saturday, June 20 – tGG, Cleveland, OH, The Bevy in Birdtown (Lakewood area) 7pm

Sunday, June 21 – tGG, Indianapolis, IN, Melody Inn 9pm

Monday, June 22 – tGG, Knoxville, TN, Preservation Pub 10pm

Tuesday, June 23 – tGG opening for Indigo Girls, Asheville, NC, Orange Peel 8pm

Wednesday, June 24 – tGG opening for Indigo Girls, Chattanooga, TN, Track 29 8pm

Thursday, June 25 – tGG opening for Indigo Girls + Kristy Lee, Mobile, AL, Saenger Theater 8pm

Pretty New Songs blog reviews Sensitive Chaos 'Seeker After Patterns'

Kim Ware reviews CDs from Sensitive Chaos, Supervisor of the Loveless Average, and Virginia Plane on her Pretty New Songs blog.

The best, most accurate review I can give of Jim’s record is what I told him after the first time I heard it. I was driving to my friend Nina’s while listening to it. And I got lost. Three times. Not because I didn’t know where she lived, but because I was that lost in the music. Hypnotic, atmospheric, and very relaxing, it’s the perfect soundtrack to chilling out after a hot day. Or, driving around aimlessly.

http://prettynewsongs.com/2011/08/01/me-and-all-my-talented-friends/

Free mp3 download of new music from The Good Graces

My alt folk band, The Good Graces, is giving away our new EP for FREE - one song at a time.

Get the first one, "Working Title" here:

http://bringonthetambourines.com

The Good Graces are Kim Ware, John McNicholas, and Jim Combs

More new band photos can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maigh/sets/72157621639172742/

This song features my Fender Rhodes and a Korg MonoPoly soft synth. Kim does vocals, acoustic gtr, and drums, and John does electric guitar.