Los Angeles band Grayson Wray Project visited Louisville and played a show with local acts Ted Stevens, Lotus Blake, and the Rusty Crowes at the Rudyard Kipling on Monday, August 8. 2011.
The band has been called a pop rock indie band with a funkadelic Beatles sound.
The Rudyard Kipling is on Oak St. and is one of the oldest venues in Louisville for arts, music, and other performances.
Ted Stevens' band performed and made quite an impression! Just back from Scotland where he attended a performance art school, he gave a high energy "old school meets modern" rock and roll performance that reminded me of a modern Chuck Berry. I wanted to jump up and shake people and ask them why they weren't dancing! Stevens B. Goode!
Lotus Blake took the stage next with a full band, wailing a more contemporary rock sound.
Ted Stevens and Lotus Blake are both on local record label MCB Records, which is owned by Tedd Pollard (left) and Nick Stevens (right). MCB Records is focused on letting musicians develop their own craft while doing what they can to help them by providing support, booking, resources and a recording studio.
Peter Sotos, owner of Fireball Management, was the driving force behind setting up this show for his band Grayson Wray to perform with the local bands. Fireball Music Management is an international management company based out of Arizona who has been able to take local acts to an international level within a year.
Local legend and international poet/performance artist Ron Whitehead performed a poem before and during Lotus Blake's set.
Grayson Wray gave a polished performance with great vocals and back up from the band. Their sound bordered psychadelic and it was no problem imagining them at an outdoors music fest. They'd be paired well with local acts The Vessel or Hogan's Fountain. According to their web site,
The seven albums Grayson Wray has released have received airplay all over the world on college, Internet and satellite radio. The newest album “Butterfly Cannonball” is currently being played across the country on 75 college radio stations.
Tracks are played on Overflow Radio from England where it has been “CD of the week”. The track “All Religions Love” charted at 2 recently on the ISON radio network -10 stations in Australia.
The Rusty Crowes' finished up the show, but I did not get a photo.
