Tag: bouzouki

LISTEN: Graber Gryass, “Your Body’s Border”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Graber Gryass
Hometown: Memphis, Tennessee
Song: “Your Body’s Border”
Album: Spaceman’s Wonderbox
Release Date: May 21, 2021
Label: Outer Orbits

In Their Words: “‘Your Body’s Border’ is a meditation on boundaries in song. From the pensive bouzouki that opens the tune to the first couplet, ‘you’re as old as the crow, fresh as an embryo,’ one can tell this song isn’t supposed to make linear sense and acts more like poetry than storytelling. The voyage is one of discovery — and the discovery is about the joys of being in love, working through stereotypes and clichés (‘if you get sweet and sour with me’), the lengths we go to find love, the transitory nature of national identity, and the repurposing of influence (notice the John Donne homage, ‘my love, my new found land’). Fiddle, banjo, mandolin, two guitars, bouzouki, and upright all play it cool, rather than hot as expected, letting the song take center stage.” — Graber Gryass

Photo credit: Eric Brice Swartz

LISTEN: Seamus Egan, “Two Little Ducks”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Seamus Egan
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Song: “Two Little Ducks”
Album: Early Bright
Release Date: January 17, 2020
Label: THL Records

In Their Words: “This mandolin-driven track is inspired by my love of Baroque music. I spent many hours as a teenager sitting in the front room of the great Irish musician and folklorist Mick Moloney’s house in Philadelphia, listening to mandolin concertos and trying to learn them by ear. I was never very successful in that endeavor, but my love of Baroque, and in particular, mandolin music endured.

“This track is also a nod, in its own way, to an old De Dannan track called ‘Arrival of the Queen of Sheba to Galway,’ from their 1983 album, Song For Ireland. This was their interpretation of the Handel piece, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba. Hearing that track was a watershed moment for me. It opened my ears to what could be possible with Irish music. It was like getting permission to look outside the tradition and see what you could find and bring back with you. It was incredibly liberating. Joining on this track is Kyle Sanna on guitar and Owen Marshall on bouzouki.” — Seamus Egan