The Juicy Grapes

Connecticut-based band The Juicy Grapes play songs filled with dance-inducing rhythms and sultry harmonies led by the soulful Tara on vocals. The music seamlessly blends funk, rock and soul, with an old-school sensibility that embraces concepts like love, peace, and all those other written-off ideals. Somehow, Tara and singers and instrumentalists Joe Tripuzzi (bass), Steve DeFala (sax) and Jim McKeeman (guitar) can sing about believing in love, respecting one another, reaching for the stars and even skinny dipping without sounding corny. It has something to do with their stylesongs that encourage bouncing and coerce even reluctant audience members onto the dance floorand something to do with their emotional investment. The Juicy Grapes love to create a scene thats high on good vibes. The band has been together, in one form or another, since 1998, moving gradually away from their jammier past to more polished pop-rock. They bring a lot of fun to the stageallowing DeFala to wail on sax, Tripuzzi to drop some bass-lines, McKeeman to wail on guitar and Bruce Hammer to lay out beats on drumswithout losing their focus. Mostly, the songs are wrapped around Taras confident singing and stage presence. Theyve played a ton of clubs and bars in the Northeast, and built a loyal fan-base in their home state, and have graced the stage of major music fests like Gathering of the Vibes, Wormtown and Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. Their self titled latest release drops May 2011.