Girls Guns and Glory

Artist Information

Biography

Girls Guns and Glory is a cosmic trinity of sorts, a mission statement, maybe even a wish list. However you look at it, Girls Guns and Glory (GGG) is a band with big things happening. Their infectious blend of americana, retro-rock, and alt-country really heats up the stage.

GGG’s tremendous stage presence, coupled with phenomenal vocals, and a slammin’ live set has garnered this Massachusetts band four Boston Music Awards (BMA). GGG was the 2011 winner of the BMA for “Americana Artist of the Year,” and they’ve recently been nominated for a fifth award in the “Live Artist of the Year” category.

Girls Guns and Glory is a celebration of sweet and tasty, fun lovin' music that is simultaneously casual and complex. The band combines elements of old school country, early rock ‘n’ roll, and americana to deliver their own brand of music. Helmed by Scituate, MA native, Ward Hayden, and backed by Chris Hersch, J. Ellis Kiggans, and Paul Dilley, the band explodes on the stage. Their supercharged live sets seamlessly flow from honky tonk originals, to covers of old school Hank Williams ballads, Johnny Cash & Johnny Horton classics, and back again to country rock. As Hayden puts it, the sound is, “early rockabilly with a little more thump and twang.”

Girls Guns and Glory are coming off of a great year. Their album, Sweet Nothings, has received great critical praise, and is receiving constant radio play across the U.S. The band has been on an almost two year tour in support of the album. Following a terrific summer tour, the boys are keeping the heat going for the fall with a Patriots pre-game show at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA, where Ward Hayden will be performing the National Anthem, and are gearing up for a European tour that kicks off on in France & finishes up in Spain.
The band has also begun recording their fifth album, which is due out in early 2013, so stay tuned!

Girls Guns and Glory is one of the best live alt-country bands playing today. This show is not to be missed.

Accolades:

2011, 2008 & 2007 Boston Music Award Winners "Americana Artist of the Year"

2008 Boston Music Award Winners "Act of the Year" (Overall)

2010 French Country Music Award Winners "Independent Artist of the Year"

2007 & 2009 Boston Phoenix "Roots Act of the Year"

2007 Boston Phoenix "Local Act of the Year"

2008 Winners of the Legendary WBCN Rock 'n' Roll Rumble

Girls Guns & Glory have performed in festivals all over the country and the world including:

SXSW
NXNE
Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion
Warren Haynes Xmas Jam
Americana Music Association (AMA) Conference & Festival in Nashville
MidPoint Music Festival
EquiBlues (France)
American/France Festival (France)
WBCN River Rave
WFNX Best Music Poll Party
Dewey Beach Americana Festival
Prescott Park Americana Festival
Georgetown Summer Concert Series
New London Americana Festival
New England Americana Festival
Americana-rama in Nashville, TN
First Night Boston
Speed Street Festival
Mayfair in Harvard Sq.
Boston Music Awards and much much more!!

Some acts of note that Girls Guns & Glory has shared bills with:

Stone Temple Pilots
Wanda Jackson
Eilen Jewell
Dawes
Dale Watson
Junior Brown
James McMurtry
Paul Thorn
Corb Lund & The Hurtin' Albertans
Southern Culture on the Skids
The Low Anthem
Trampled By Turtles
David Wax Museum
Lake Street Dive
Micky & The Motorcars
Reckless Kelly
Say Anything
Silver Sun Pickups
Scott Miller
Chip Taylor
John Eddie
Clint Black
Roger Creager
The Allman Brothers Band
Gov't Mule
Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles
Kevin Kinney (of Drivin and Cryin)
The Derek Trucks Band
Drag the River
Camper Van Beethoven
Uncle Monk (featuring Tommy Ramone)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
and many many more!!


ACCOLADES:
-2011 "Americana Artist of the Year" Boston Music Award

-2010 "Independent Artist of the Year" French Country Music Award

- 2008 "Act of the Year" Boston Music Award

- 2007 and 2008 "Outstanding Americana Act of the Year" Boston Music Award

- Winner of the (2008) 30th Annual WBCN Rock 'n' Roll Rumble (only band of the Country of Americana genre to ever do so!!)

- "Best Local Band" in the 2007 Boston Phoenix Reader's Poll.

- "Best Roots Act" in the 2007 & 2009 WFNX/Phoenix Best Music Poll.

Album Accolades:
- "Top 10 Albums of the Year" 2008 for "Inverted Valentine" -The Boston Globe
- #1 Local Album of the Year 2007 - Girls Guns & Glory "Pretty Little Wrecking Ball" -The Patriot Ledger
- "Top 15 Albums of the Year" 2007 for "Pretty Little Wrecking Ball" - The Boston Globe
-#8 National Album of the Year 2007 - Girls Guns & Glory "Pretty Little Wrecking Ball" - The Patriot Ledger

RADIO :

"Inverted Valentine" 2008

#8 AMA/R&R Charts
#2 Roots Music Report (roots country chart)
#12 XM X-Country
#21 FAR chart
#9 The Noise Chart - Boston

#44 - AMA Top 100 Albums of 2008

"Pretty Little Wrecking Ball" 2007

#142 AMA
#33 Roots Music Report (roots country chart)
#17 XM X-Country


Girls Guns & Glory's song "Big Man" has been featured in the following nationally televised programs:

- ESPN's "Best Slam Dunks of the Year" sequence 2007 March Madness.
- ESPN's "College Football Primetime" 2007 hightlights.
- Capital One Bowl, air date January 1, 2008 on ABC.
- "NASCAR Countdown" aired on ABC and ESPN.

"Big Man" (from Pretty Little Wrecking Ball) was used by RADIOSHACK in a national television ad campaign.

Girls Guns & Glory has also performed Live on the FOX 25 Morning News (twice) and live in the studio on WAAF, WBCN, WFNX, WMFO, WAMH, WTBU, WMBR and numerous other radio stations across the country.

PRESS QUOTES:

"Girls Guns and Glory delivered a graceful, sturdy set of Buddy Holly-meets-Buck Owens twang 'n' roll that translated to the night's most sublime performance. Singer-guitarist Ward Hayden has the pillowy voice of a '50s pin-up star -- the constant comparisons to crooners like Chris Isaak and Lyle Lovett are well-deserved -- and his band's amber-soaked melodies, tight musicianship, and casual elegance were a tonic to an evening." -The Boston Globe

"(Girls Guns & Glory) had a smooth, authentic Honky Tonk/early Rock & Roll vibe that was incredibly endearing. The group won over the packed house at Mr. Pitiful's "in less than half a verse, no lie,"" -City Beat (Cincinnatti, OH)

"Girls, Guns and Glory just might re-ignite the whole country-rock scene in New England...GG&G has some serious country music chops, but they also kick it up with rock 'n' roll abandon.� � The Patriot Ledger

"Imagine Lyle Lovett and Chris Isaak paying tribute to classic American rock n' roll from Elvis, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison.� �The Boston Herald

"Bourbon's doesn't feature chicken wire around the stage or peanut hulls on the floor, but the new venue felt like a Southern roadhouse on Friday night when Girls Guns and Glory rocked the joint, roots style.� �The Wire (Portsmouth, NH)

�Girls Guns and Glory isn't your typical rock n' roll band. They burst into their first set, treating a capacity crowd to lick to tunes that would even make Charlie Daniels and Tom Petty tip their hats.� � The Noise

Instrumentation

Paul Dilley - Electric and Upright Bass
Ward Hayden - Vocals/Acoustic Guitar
J. Ellis Kiggans - Drum Kit & Percussion
Chris Hersch - Electric Guitar/Banjo/Vocals

Discography

"Sweet Nothings" - Released on Lonesome Day Records 2011.

Top 20 Charting Album on Americana Music Assoc. Chart

Top 10 Charting Album on Roots 66 International Airplay Chart

PopMatters Top 10 "Country Albums of the Year."

Yahoo Music's Top Album's of the Year

"Inverted Valentine" - Independently released in May 2008, Re-released on Lonesome Day Records in Sept. 2009.
Added on over 200+ college/AAA/AMA/Country stations across the USA.
#8 AMA chart (Americana Music Association)
#2 Roots Music Report (RMR)
#12 XM X-Country
#21 FAR chart
#11 The Noise Chart

"Pretty Little Wrecking Ball" - Sophomore Release - came out in February of 2007 to much critical acclaim. Receiving airplay over 150 college/AAA/AMA radio stations around the country as well as major commercial stations all over New England and beyond! It was the #5 most added album and charted at #142 on the AMA Charts. #33 on the RMR Charts and #17 on the XM Satellite Radio - X Country Chart.

"#1 Local Album" of 2007 -The Patriot Ledger
"#8 National Album" of 2007 -The Partiot Ledger
"Top 15 Albums of 2007" -The Boston Globe

"Fireworks & Alcohol"- Debut CD released in December 2005. Songs, "The Last Ride", "Anti-Establishment Love Song" "Cause & Effect" and "Chasing the Night", have all received airplay on major commercial radio stations, such as WBCN, WAAF and WFNX.

Official Website

http://www.girlsgunsandglory.com

Links

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Girls Guns & Glory website
• MySpace

Audio

• Temptation
  Listen  
• Six Sixty Seven
  Listen  
• Big Man
  Listen  

Lyrics

• Temptation
• Six Sixty Seven
• Big Man

Video

-maryanne-_-_girls,_guns_and_glory_1920x1080.mov

Photo Gallery

Press

• A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock n' Roll [+ Show ]
  

  BROOKLINE -- They may come from places named Scituate and Hingham, but their sound is pure south of ...BROOKLINE -- They may come from places named Scituate and Hingham, but their sound is pure south of the Mason-Dixon line. They're Girls Guns & Glory, one of the hottest bands in Boston right now, and their vibrant new CD, "Pretty Little Wrecking Ball," offers ample testimony to New England's thriving roots music scene, where bluegrass and blues, and country and western are as much a part of the landscape as punk and garage rock.
  
  3G singer and rhythm guitarist Ward Hayden is only 25, but his flexible tenor and songs of sin, redemption, and loss sound of a much older vintage, seasoned with personal pain and spiked with copious amounts of Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers . Hayden says he first sought out the music of the country giants in college, and what he heard "did something to me."
  
  "I wish I could put my finger on it, exactly," says Hayden over dinner and drinks with his bandmates at Matt Murphy's Pub. "There's definitely something about that music that you don't hear too much nowadays. [Williams's] life was about heartache -- he was writing about things he knew -- so he was very true to himself. His music wasn't overproduced or flashy. Never did I not believe a single word that he said, because it was honest."
  
  Hayden, with '50s-style pin-up good looks, is as slight and sharp-featured as Williams was. Unlike his idol, however, he opts for water over whiskey as the pints flow for his bandmates. Despite 3G's hard-bitten odes to demon alcohol on "Wrecking Ball," like "Brown Bottle Blues," Hayden's choice of beverage is a sign that his life expectancy will surely surpass that of his spiritual mentor, who died young in an alcoholic haze in the back of a baby-blue Cadillac.
  
  Still, Hayden confesses that many of the tracks that make up "Wrecking Ball," whose release the band celebrates tomorrow night with a show at Harpers Ferry, come from personal strife -- namely, a long-term relationship that broke up and sent Hayden into an emotional tailspin. That's when he began writing the clutch of songs that appear on the new disc. "It seems to me that Wardy comes up with three or four songs a week," says percussionist Brendan Murphy, grinning approvingly. Over the past year or so, echoes drummer John Graham, "it seems like we've picked up steam."
  
  In an effort to capture that steam on tape, 3G began recording at Scituate's Noise in the Attic Studios last summer. Despite working within the classic but familiar framework of old-school country cut with a dose of roots rock, "Wrecking Ball" feels like an exciting blast of fresh air. "I tried to bring that stage feel and energy to the studio," Hayden says. "We wanted to capture the essence of our live performances."
  
  Kier Byrnes , front man for the Boston bluegrass-punk outfit Three Day Threshold (they'll join 3G for tomorrow's show), calls the quintet one of his "favorite bands in town." Girls Guns & Glory, he says via e-mail, "has a live show that rivals any of the bands you'd see in the Beale Street juke joints of Memphis or the famed honky tonks on Nashville's Lower Broadway." Furthermore, Byrnes adds, Hayden's "got a great sense of composition and arrangement and his abilities just keep evolving. He borrows elements of early rock 'n' roll, folk and country music and creates something totally different and modern."
  
  Murphy proudly calls the album "our crowning achievement," and claims the key to 3G's getting a robust, swinging sound that's natural rather than studied has to do with band chemistry. "I don't think that when we play a song we're thinking about genres," he says. "We all have different ideas about what we like, and that's why it comes out the way it does."
  
  "I'm not a folk musician and I'm not a country drummer," adds Graham, shirking the genre descriptions that usually surround the band. "I like to hit 'em really hard." And, as lead guitarist Colin Toomey interjects, "I can't play like a country guitar player -- I'm a rock 'n' roll guitar player." Add to that bassist Bruce "Tad" Beagley's love of outlaw country and traditional Irish music, and Hayden's high, lonesome howl of an earlier age, and you've got a novel tweak on traditional expectations. The approach, 3G's members agree, is both a reaction and response to much of modern rock and country radio.
  
  "I would say definitely," Hayden says. "For a long time I was hearing stuff on country radio that was formulaic and didn't grab me. I'm not going to lie, though -- some of the pop songs come on and they're pretty good. There is some good contemporary stuff out there, and every once in a while they knock it out of the park. But [modern] country music is some of the worst in terms of formula, and that turns me off."
  
  Girls Guns & Glory are here, they say, to offer an alternative: "There's definitely a strategy, and it's about putting our music in front of people and giving them the chance to check us out and hear it," says Hayden. "Hopefully, we'll put on a good show, they'll get their five dollars' worth, and go home happy."
  
  What you want to call them, they say, is up to you. But right now, after drinks and dinner, they've got to jump-start Beagley's old pickup, which is on the fritz again. They bid goodbye with Beagley in the driver's seat, turning the ignition and steering as the truck rolls down Harvard Street, the rest of the band pushing the vehicle from behind at full gallop. With a sudden roar, the truck rumbles to life, and the guys grab a foothold and hop aboard. The ride may be bumpy, but the pickup, and the band, are headed in the right direction.
  

• Win Over a New Crowd [+ Show ]
  

  "(Girls Guns & Glory) had a smooth, authentic Honky Tonk/early Rock & Roll vibe that was incredibly ..."(Girls Guns & Glory) had a smooth, authentic Honky Tonk/early Rock & Roll vibe that was incredibly endearing. The group won over the packed house at Mr. Pitiful's "in less than half a verse, no lie,""

• The Boston Globe - Live Review [+ Show ]
  

  "Girls Guns and Glory delivered a graceful, sturdy set of Buddy Holly-meets-Buck Owens twang 'n' rol..."Girls Guns and Glory delivered a graceful, sturdy set of Buddy Holly-meets-Buck Owens twang 'n' roll that translated to the night's most sublime performance. Singer-guitarist Ward Hayden has the pillowy voice of a '50s pin-up star -- the constant comparisons to crooners like Chris Isaak and Lyle Lovett are well-deserved -- and his band's amber-soaked melodies, tight musicianship, and casual elegance were a tonic to an evening."

• Best Roots Act [+ Show ]
  

  "A twangy country-folk band might not best represent the majority of music that's coming out of Bost..."A twangy country-folk band might not best represent the majority of music that's coming out of Boston, but Girls Guns & Glory is a DAMNED GOOD AMBASSADOR FOR THE HUB'S LOCAL TALENT. An eclectic blend of musical styles that's reminiscent of Johnny Cash one minute, CCR the next, the all-male quintet mixes catchy melodies with cowboy vocals and creative percussion, hurling grit (sometimes grits) and heart into every tune."

• Re-ignite Country Rock! [+ Show ]
  

  "Girls, Guns and Glory just might re-ignite the whole country-rock scene in New England...GG&G has s..."Girls, Guns and Glory just might re-ignite the whole country-rock scene in New England...GG&G has some serious country music chops, but they also kick it up with rock 'n' roll abandon.”

• Modern Vintage [+ Show ]
  

  "Imagine Lyle Lovett and Chris Isaak paying tribute to classic American rock n' roll from Elvis, Han..."Imagine Lyle Lovett and Chris Isaak paying tribute to classic American rock n' roll from Elvis, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison.” –The Boston Herald

• Live Review [+ Show ]
  

  Bourbon's doesn't feature chicken wire around the stage or peanut hulls on the floor, but the new ve...Bourbon's doesn't feature chicken wire around the stage or peanut hulls on the floor, but the new venue felt like a Southern roadhouse on Friday night when Girls Guns and Glory rocked the joint, roots style.”

• CD Release Review [+ Show ]
  

  “Girls Guns and Glory isn't your typical rock n' roll band. They burst into their first set, treatin...“Girls Guns and Glory isn't your typical rock n' roll band. They burst into their first set, treating a capacity crowd to lick to tunes that would even make Charlie Daniels and Tom Petty tip their hats.”

• Foot Stomping Sorrow [+ Show ]
  

  Girls Guns & Glory bring old fashioned country to Boston By Michael Hogan There was a time whe...Girls Guns & Glory bring old fashioned country to Boston
  
  By Michael Hogan
  
  There was a time when country music spoke with a Southern twang, steel guitars and fiddles sang out songs of heartache and pain. Today's country music has become more like disco with a Southern accent, dance worthy songs about tequila and tractors. Now, I've got no problem with tequila, tractors, or dance worthy songs. I just miss the days when Johnny Cash and Hank Williams could bring a tear to your eye with simple heartfelt lyrics of loss and sorrow. Well, I think I have found my cure. With the release of Girls, Guns, and Glory's new album Pretty Little Wrecking Ball country music has found its tear-stained roots again.
  
  Front-man Ward Hayden, has crafted 13 songs that hearken back to the days of lost loves and lost jobs that once permeated the country scene. The Boston-based band is made up of Hayden, percussionist Brendan Murphy, lead guitarist Colin Toomey, drummer John Graham, and bassist Bruce "Bagley" Beagley. Though they hail from the Northeast, a place known for anything but country music, the music says otherwise. Hayden's warbling voice soars over the acoustic rhythms of these soulful creations. Listening to Girls, Guns, and Glory, I feel more like I am sitting in a good old-fashioned Texas honky tonk than in front of a roaring fire in the midst of the New England winter.
  
  Many of the songs on this album are perfect representations of the musical enigma the country genre has been searching for from the beginning and has rarely found foot stomping sorrow. Songs like "Brown Bottle Blues," "Big Man," "Love God and Murder," "Oh My," "Born Mad," and the title track Floorow with an infectious rhythm that you can't help put tap your toe to. At the same time there are tracks like "Just Can't Win," "Wait a Minute," "Here's To the Girls," "Just for Gold," and the heartbreaking "Tennessee Rose" that have a more mellow tone, a passive beat just as contagious as the more energetic songs, but still they chime with a certain quiet passion. On Pretty Little Wrecking Ball, we find the best of both worlds when it comes to country music; the resonating beat that makes you want to get your dancing boots on and the deeply truthful insights into the darker, more depressing, side of humanity.
  
  Girls, Guns, and Glory spend a lot of time touring the Boston area, bringing their own brand of music to the denizens of the Northeast who are starved for live country music. These are shows for the people who don't want to have to wait for Kenny Chesney to bring his friends to Gillette for the annual summer Countryfest. It ain't Rascal Flatts but it's pretty damn close. If you want to catch Girls, Guns, and Glory in person you can do so on April 28th at Matt Murphy's Pub in Brookline.
  
  

Setlist

Original songs & a few choice covers.

Basic Requirements

Calendar