Ash Grunwald
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| Ash Grunwald | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | May 9, 1976 |
| Origin | Melbourne, Australia |
| Genre(s) | Blues Roots |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, Songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals Guitar Harmonica Lapsteel Stomp Box |
| Label(s) | Indie |
| Associated acts | The John Butler Trio The Waifs Xavier Rudd |
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| Dobro Lap steel |
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Ash Grunwald (born 9 May 1976, Melbourne, Australia) is a Australian radio announcer and blues musician.
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[edit] Early career
The Blue Grunwalds, one of Grunwald's first bands, released the album Groove Cave, which enjoyed healthy sales, local community radio airplay and favourable reviews in the local press.
In 2001 Grunwald formed a trio called the Groove Catalysts. The Groove Catalysts have played every major blues venue in Melbourne and have enjoyed popular residencies in many of them. In 2001 through 2002, the Groove Catalysts played at several major outdoor festivals, sharing the stage with Australian blues acts such as Geoff Achison, Harper, Collard Greens And Gravy, Chris Wilson and Lloyd Spiegel.
As a solo artist, Grunwald has maintained several residencies over the past few years and has toured throughout Victoria and the east coast of Australia.
Throughout 2001 Grunwald played in a duo with Lloyd Spiegel, and played several concerts with Ian Collard (of Collard Greens And Gravy).
[edit] Solo career
Grunwald drew attention as a solo artist with the release of 2002's Introducing Ash Grunwald, a collection of originals and blues standards that included "Smokestack Lightnin'" (Howlin' Wolf) "The Sky Is Crying" (Elmore James) and "Rolling And Tumbling" (Robert Johnson) recorded live with only acoustic guitar and foot percussion consisting of a stomp box and tambourine.
The album also includes "Dolphin Song," which is based on an actual encounter Grunwald, a devout surfer, had with a shark and the pod of dolphins that came to his rescue.
The positive response to Grunwald's debut resulted in two 2002 Victorian Blues awards for Emerging Talent and Album Of The Year.
In 2004 Ash released his follow up album I Don't Believe, once again recorded solo and live. Since his initial release he had been made aware of two Tom Waits albums, Swordfishtrombones and Bone Machine. As a result, he emulates Waits' experimental bang and clang percussion using hammers, spanners, pots etc, in addition to a boss loop station as a bed for his lap steel, dobro and acoustic guitars.[citation needed]
The album included six originals, two Waits compositions, "Going Out West" and "Jesus Gonna Be Here" (a-cappella with handclaps) and blues standards "Walking Blues" and "Cross Roads" (Robert Johnson), "Empire State" (Son House) and "How Many More Years" (Howlin' Wolf).
On the strength of this release Grunwald won an ARIA award nomination for Best Blues And Roots Album, and the Victorian Blues award for Male Vocalist Of The Year (equal with Lloyd Spiegel) and in 2005 the MBAS Vic / Tas award for Solo / Duo Of The Year (equal with Dave Hogan).
For the Live At The Corner album (songs from his first two releases plus Willie Dixon's "Spoonful" featuring Ian Collard on harmonica) Grunwald won the 2005 MBAS Vic / Tas and Australian Blues awards Album Of The Year in addition to being nominated once again for the Best Blues And Roots album at the ARIAs.
In May 2005, Grunwald was invited to take over as host of Triple J's Thursday night show Roots N All.
Grunwald released twelve original songs on Give Signs recorded on his own record label, Delta Groove Records. As with preceding albums it was recorded live and solo. In 2006, Grunwald supported James Brown at his Tasmanian concert.
On December 21, 2006 Grunwald finished his role as a Triple J presenter. In September 2007 he was nominated for another ARIA award for Best Blues and Roots Album.
