The BlueGrunge sessions were "Salvage Sessions," music recorded on Long Island, New York and even Montreal, for publisher demos and other projects, by some of the best indie rising stars in the Metro NY area... like Lex Grey, Lorraine Ferro, Frank Patterson & Bob Stander. For example, this compilation features rare tracks with voices/songwriting from:
o Lex Grey - the great Brooklyn female blues maven/musician has been tearing up the East Coast from DC to Maine! She's a prolific songwriter (Urban Pioneers, nee in Williamsburg with slide pro Vic Deyglio -- concert regulars at Riverhead BluesFestival.org and Woodstock Blues Fest) and also astonishingly, composer for the iXilion Burlesque sound track at Mo Pitkins and songs for 2 indie films. See their official site, MySpace and YouTube for great band video footage in Grand Central NYC & in DC. Lex's classic and modern take on the blues is plentifully represented on FIVE great albums on CDBaby.com--the unbreakable spirit of Mae West on a Harley, with a kicking, electrifying style! (Vocals/ writing on trax #1 & #12 MOTORMAN acoustic & electric takes, and on #2 TRY )
o Lorraine Ferro, NYC’s multi-platinum writer, (don't miss CDBaby's Ferro and Loudlife Band pages) incredible inspirational AND goth-metal singer/songwriter AND producer. And what a voice! Ferro contributes vocals and keyboards to Try and Act Your Age.
o Maria Baugh, percussionist and backup singer with the cult 90's group, the Anne Sexton-titled band Elizabeth Gone.
o Frank Patterson, drummer for Memphis Blues Award finalists Lil' Cliff, and world tour drummer for Alt Country singer Mary Lamont; Frank co-wrote the high energy track TRY, with Lex Grey.
The guitar roster reads like a roadmap to some of the best players on Long Island and in NYC.
o Bob Stander (Sessions producer/player with Caroline Docterow, Kung Fu Girls, the legendary Annie Golden, Frank Carillo and the Bandoleros, and other seminal NYC acts, including rising painter/songwriting star Patty Rotherg);
o Jim Santo (Guitar lead with Joe's Pub NY faves TheSharpThings.com, Jennifer Convertible, and the DemoUniverse web designer)
o Vick Deyglio (Lead player/writer for LexGreyMusic.com and The Urban Pioneers, and session engineer for legends like Lou Reed at Record Plant)
o John Canale (The RockAholics, KillingmeSoftlees, The Haneys, and other indie groups haunting our engrams of the legendary CBGB's)(Cool walls of guitars on Act Your Age and Sylvia.)
Tracks were often written on-the-fly during the sessions which were salvaged in such diverse locales as Deyglio/Grey's Williamsberg Brooklyn's Shabbey Road Studios, and Long Island's VuDuStudios.
Highlight songs recently written in real-time anxiety included:
o The MotorMan, loosely based on a Boston transit legend, which has run on KABC in Los Angeles by broadcast legend Leon Kaplan, also known as the (automotive) MotorMan, and a lover of all things blues, including Lex's Urban Pioneers.
o Act Your Age, with "ferrocious" L. Ferro's vocals and summertime energy. It's also a birthday card set to a drum riff. And a ringtone.
o The Sylvia track, which is based on the poems in Sylvia Plath’s Ariel, and loops pure sounds and guitars together. We put an instrumental version on for daring people to read over with their own selected poems.
Throughout, Williamsburg blues rocker, uber-diva Lex Grey’s vocals set a tone, elevate the energy, via her backups on 2 tracks (TimeBomb, HitNRun) and lead vocals on three cuts including Try and MotorMan. The Bluegrunge CD was just picked up for the Spring by Stony Brook University's WUSB and reviewed by Good Times Magazine on Long Island NY!
The artists all hope you enjoy this "salvage" music compilation as much as we enjoy the idea that Willet's Point's rusty scrapyards will be sitting across the street from the luxurious new NY Mets Stadium in wetlands and legal class-action limbo for decades to come. We hope you enjoy these tracks for at least that long.
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