Graham Weber
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Graham Weber

Austin, Texas, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2001 | SELF

Austin, Texas, United States | SELF
Established on Jan, 2001
Solo Americana Singer/Songwriter

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"Graham Weber - Faded Photos"

Graham Weber
Faded Photos

The Austin folk songwriter takes a step toward the avant-garde on Faded Photos. Fusing his throwback inspirations, including the great John Prine, with modern-day art-rock acts like Wilco, Weber is a promising addition to the live music circuit, with particular thanks to his bare-boned lyrics. - Austin Monthly


"Graham Weber - Faded Photos"

Graham Weber
Faded Photos
"Let's start stripping it down," declares Graham Weber at the outset of Faded Photos on "YNRN." The local songwriter's fifth effort counters his recent roots-rock work with So Long, Problems, returning him to the gripping lyrical detail of 2011's Women and 2008's Door to the Morning as he continues to mature as an exceptional songwriter. Being There-era Wilco provides the aesthetic touchstone here, Weber's weary, scratched drawl ripping the vulnerability, pain, and beauty of pre-SSRI Tweedy. Peter Stopschinski's sparse string arrangements and a light hand from producer Randy Reynolds lift the swaying regret of "Balloons" and "Boston," while "Ballad of the 04 Lounge" paints a moving, heartbroken scene. Dark gypsy touches to "Talia" and up-tempo punch on "Time" ease the weight somewhat, and the layered vocals of piano closer "Jason" cut a softer, if comparably broken, pop bent. Weber remains a master of evocative metaphor unraveling in the uneasy rift of his whiskey-burnt tenor. - Austin Chronicle


"Graham Weber - Faded Photos"

If you want evidence that Graham Weber can rock, proceed directly to Ashes in the Rearview, the new album by So Long, Problems, the Stones/Replacements-happy side project he co-fronts with Mike Schoenfeld. But although Weber certainly does that hair-of-the-dog stuff well, fans of the Ohio-reared, Austin-based singer-songwriter's handful of excellent solo albums since his 2005 debut, Naive Melodies, know what he really excels at are the kind of gorgeously melancholy musings that are best imbibed after last call. The short but sweet Faded Photos is par for that course, offering eight hauntingly melodic ruminations on memory, love, loss, and regret - and more often than not, all of the above ("Ballad of the 04 Lounge"). Unlike his last album, 2011's female guest-laden Women, Weber sings every song here all by his lonesome, but his voice is still a beauty in it's own right: as expressive and plaintive as Jeff Tweedy's at it's most vulnerable ("Boston", "No One"), but distinguished by a keening shimmer around the edges here and there and comes to the fore with chilling effectiveness on "Talia". That voice and Weber's songs - as strong lyrically as they are melodically - would have been more than enough to make Faded Photos a prized keepsake; the unfailingly elegant arrangements, rife with evocative cello and additional strings, are just the icing on the cake. - Lone Star Music Magazine


"In Case You Missed It: 2014, so far"

Graham Weber, “Faded Photos”: I happened to run into Weber at Jeff Tweedy’s Texas Union Ballroom show a couple weeks ago; a huge fan of the indie/alt-country songwriter, he’d also attended the previous night’s “Austin City Limits” taping. He mentioned that hearing Tweedy’s full set of new songs had inspired him to write eight songs earlier that day, saying he’d been in a bit of a writing funk lately. It’d sure be hard tell from his 2014 output, which has included this fine collection of mostly acoustic songs highlighting his plaintive tenor as well as a new disc by So Long, Problems, a more rockin’ outlet he plays with on the side. - Austin American Statesman


"(Faded Photos)Discover 10 Independent Albums for Independence Day"

Graham Weber, Faded Photos
Graham Weber sketches indelible portraits framing broken dreams (“Boston”) and unraveling seams (“Ballad of the 04 Lounge”). “Faded Photos lives in late night alone when you’re staring at the man in the moon,” he says, “and expecting him to answer questions you refuse to ask in the daylight.” The masterful Austin-based songwriter’s new collection might be his finest yet. - CMT Edge


"Graham Weber - Women"

Graham Weber
Women
The Graham Weber of Women is a desperate man, broken and beaten and confronting all of his own excuses. "I'm searching for escape from all the things I do to keep myself immune," the local singer-songwriter declares on his fourth LP. Weber's a master of narrative and image in his songs, capturing slight, glinting moments that pass so tentatively by, but Women turns that attention inward for a complex emotional reckoning. As "I'm Already Lonely," "Settle Down," "Black and White," and the trembling, unadorned "Baltimore" all strike with a brutal rawness, the production and arrangements manage to balance and ease the sullen sentiment with vibrant unexpected punches, as with bookenders "Sweet Virginia Brown" and "Sleep It Off," featuring local songstresses Dana Falconberry and BettySoo, respectively. The female harmonies likewise shade both heartbreak and hope, courtesy of Carrie Rodriguez, Bonnie Whitmore, and more, Weber working through memory and gin. As in life, Women isn't always easy, but it's more than worth the struggle. - Austin Chronicle


Discography

Still working on that hot first release.

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Bio

Graham Weber


Faded Photos

In the wake of  2011’s “Women”, Graham Weber toured the album across the US, played on a slew of radio stations, and received complimentary reviews from a number of publications. Upon returning to Austin, he put down his acoustic, bought a Gibson SG and primarily devoted his time to playing with the rock and roll band So Long, Problems. SL,P  subsequently made and released their debut album, “Ashes In The Rearview”, while Weber kept his solo work at arms length.   “After constantly playing, recording, and touring as a solo artist for years, sharing the load and turning up loud was comforting. Though I knew I still had songs that didn't fit with SL,P, I was content to let them gather dust”, recounts Weber.  That was until friend and collaborator Randy Reynolds (formerly of Leatherbag and producer of Weber’s 2007 album "The Door To The Morning") talked him into doing a solo project.  “The idea was to go through old songs, and some new ones and rework them for our own purposes. He was about to have his first child, I was approaching the tenth year of my marriage and questioning the longevity and worth of continuing a career as a musician.”  They assembled a studio band and worked with  mutual friend and engineer Adam Hilton (Linen Closet) at Shine Studios off East 4th street in Austin.  The team contacted Peter Stopschinski (Lambchop, Groupo Fantasma, Golden Hornet Project) about composing string arrangements to complete what we had started.  “The end result is unlike any album I've ever been a part of, and I love it.”  


Women


In the six years since moving sight unseen from Ohio to Austin, Texas, Graham Weber has staked his claim in the Live Music Capital of World as one of the areas finest young singer-songwriters not quite famous but highly respected by peers and fans in the know on the strength of both his live performances and three exceptional albums (2003s Naive Melodies, 2006s Beggars Blues and 2008s The Door to the Morning). In the summer of 2011, he releases his long-overdue fourth solo album, Women. Recorded in Austin with co-producer Britton Beisenherz, the title nods to the impressive lineup of female singers and musicians featured throughout the album. Its a project Weber's dreamed about for years, now finally come to fruition in what is unquestionably both is most ambitious and uncompromisingly personal album to date.


Rounding up his dream team of female guests actually proved rather easy. The formidable cast he assembled acclaimed singer-songwriters Carrie Rodriguez, Amanda Shires, BettySoo, Dana Falconberry, Bonnie Whitmore, Leslie Stevens and even his own wife and muse, actress/singer Michelle Keffer speaks volumes about both the talented company Weber keeps and his standing as a true songwriters songwriter. (That term may get tossed around a lot these days, but Weber earned his certification when none other than Slaid Cleaves recorded one of his songs, Oh Roberta, on his 2006 album, Unsung.)


That said, though, coming up with just the right songs for Women was no walk in the park. In order to write the album, Weber first had to endure the worst year of his life.


Im very gun shy in calling it a concept album, Weber says, but its pretty much about my marriage and this pretty dark year we went through in 2009. It kind of starts leading up to that, and then just tells this story about a relationship. (Spoiler alert: After nearly a year apart, Weber and his wife are happily back together and recently celebrated their eighth anniversary.) In the interest of giving a fair and balanced account of the situation (albeit with a distinct bias against himself), Weber wrote several of the songs from the female point of view or at least I was thinking more about that side of the argument than I had before. Thats where the women of Women including his wife come in


That female presence isnt the only extra something-something that sets Women apart from Webers previous three studio albums. Although he can certainly hold his own playing solo acoustic (as proven over countless performances at Austins famed Cactus Cafe and at venues around the country, opening for such esteemed artists as the aforementioned Cleaves, Ramblin Jack Elliot, Eliza Gilkyson, Todd Snider and Guy Clark), Weber and Beisenherz decided early on not to restrict themselves in the studio. (read full bio at GrahamWeber.com)

Band Members