Grand Oversoul

· Local Jam band Grand Oversoul are taking a unique approach to recording their upcoming album. The band took over Oakley's 20th Century Theater on May 15 for a four-day session with Jim Andrews (Ray's Music Exchange) and John Gentry Jr. (Naked Redheads) co-producing. Thursday, the band opens their "studio" up to fans for an 8:30 p.m. concert. The performance will be recorded for a possible EP prior to the full-length. No release date has been set, but the band hopes to have the CD out by the end of the summer. (grandoversoul.com)

- CityBeat by: Mike Breen (5/18/2005)

"Grand Oversoul is one of the area's best jam-rock bands".
Jan Perry
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- The Cincinnati Post

WEDNESDAY 26, 2003
"...Grand Oversoul is most impressive in their originality, showing only traces of their influences and gliding on a dreamy wave of dynamic, atmospheric Rock music that rolls with a stream-of-conscious fluidity. Moody, well-written songs float seamlessly into one another on the self-titled album, and when they stretch, it's never in an overindulgent, meandering noodle-fest. " -- MIKE BREEN

- Citybeat

Friday, October 29, 2004


C.E. HANIFIN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

"...Grand Oversoul, a Southern-slanted rock group, will feed the heads of Jefferson Airplane fans with a track-by-track rendition of the psychedelic 1967 release Surrealistic Pillow."


"... Mike Welch of Grand Oversoul: "Jefferson Airplane was one of the first quintessential rock fusion bands of the '60s. The sounds and bands coming out of San Francisco during that era had quite a bit of influence on Grand Oversoul."


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- Cincinnati Enquirer

http://www.citybeat.com/cea/music2004.html

--Visit this website as Grand Oversoulwas nominated for Best Jam Band in Cincinnati - Citybeat

Wednesday, December 22, 2004
TABARI MCCOY | CIN WEEKLY


ALL STAR NEW YEAR'S EVE BLAST

THE 411: If you're a fan of local music, this is a great option to say goodbye to 2004. Ray's Music Exchange, Grand Oversoul, the Comet Bluegrass Allstars, Buckra, The Ropers and Dr. Chlorophyll are all scheduled to perform.
- Cincinnati Enquirer/Cin Weekly

Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Grand Oversoul
Get up on tha funk
KARI WETHERINGTON | CIN WEEKLY


"...Hebron band Grand Oversoul sticks out from the crowd with its funky, organic brand of jam music."

"...Don't know what to expect from a "jam band?" Grand Oversoul's sound is an organic, bluesy sort of jam - complete with keyboard and saxophone. In other words, it's everything that three-piece power-pop is not."

SEE 'EM AT MIDPOINT: Midnight Thursday at RBC

LEARN MORE: www.grandoversoul.com
- CinWeekly

Grand Oversoul has become one of the leading bands on the local Jam Band scene

Interview By Alex Hall



Photo By Grand Oversoul
Grand Oversoul
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"It's therapy, it's relaxing, it's fun, and it surrounds us." This is what music means to guitarist Mike Welch and his band Grand Oversoul. Music has indeed surrounded them of late. After a recent gig opening for nationals Rusted Root, as well as a 2004 CEA nomination for best "Jam Band" in the category's inaugural year, Grand Oversoul has grown rapidly with one thing in mind. "Music is everything we do and the only thing we want to do," says guitarist/vocalist Todd Clayton.
True to their Jam band nature, the guys are the result of a chance meeting at the yearly Jam mecca, Bonnaroo. Welch and Clayton's musical encounters became more regular, with each bringing to the table the songs they knew, be they Grateful Dead renderings or Widespread Panic Southern jams. Clayton brought in Mike Putman on bass, providing playing that is said to be, according to the band's Web site, "a driving backdoor force to Grand Oversoul," Then the trio tried out several drummers before sticking with Welch's brother, Scott.

Rapid became the key word early in the quartet's history, as the first demo CD was recorded on Scott Welch's fourth rehearsal with his brother's new project. In May 2003, the group played to their first audience as a warm-up for the now defunct Alias Jones, where they met keyboardist Andy Lenihan. Having an important gig coming up in West Virginia with Athens, Ohio, jammers Guest, the band sought Lenihan out to do the gig with them. After the show, Lenihan stuck around and became the permanent ivory tickler. According to Welch, "Andy took our music in a new direction. He's a tremendous musician, and it added a whole new element to our music."

A year-and-a-half later, Jamie Ritchie filled out the band's sound more with added percussion. "I had known Jamie for a long time, and he had always been a drummer," Mike Welch says. "He actually shared the practice space we rent, and we asked if he wanted to play percussion. He went out and bought all these instruments and instantly fit right in. And that was that -- we were a six-piece."

Just as the band's lineup rapidly grew, so too did their crowd.

"We try to play out as much as we can without playing too much," says Welch. "It's nice to play in front of decent-size crowds, especially when you notice a lot of new faces coming to hear us."

With those fans has come success, including the aforementioned opening gig with Rusted Root, of which Welch says, "It was a good night for us. We played a short 50-minute set that started out with the crowd just kind of staring and bobbing their heads trying to figure out who we were. By the time our set was up, the crowd really was into it and gave us a great response, and when the lights came on it was cool to see that the place was packed."

But big gigs aside, it's the music that shines through. With the completed lineup, Welch says, "I think we finally have the sound we want. We're all continually getting to be better musicians and, as a band, we have a pretty good understanding of each other's style and so forth. We're starting to react to each other much better onstage now than before."

As their Web site maintains, GO's sound is indeed Southern-slanted, especially in the vocal department. "Dancin' with My Emotions," the sample track from the upcoming album recorded when the group took over Oakley's 20th Century Theater in May, is a raw, dirty guitar ditty, heated up in the choruses with organ sounds and with a middle-section improvisational spree that ends with the song's powerful Rock & Roll crescendo.

As for writing, Clayton says the collective contributions of the band members is key. "When I look at our list of originals, there are many I have written on my own and many that someone in the band has helped me write. But ... the song really comes to life in arrangement and onstage."

It's doubtful that Grand Oversoul is overdoing anything, let alone soul. But with the success the sextet of jammers has had so far, it seems the future will keep true to the first part of their name and indeed be quite grand.
- CityBeat

"There's remarkable warmth in the production, which has an intimate, live feel that gives the record the "classic" sound GO's music demands. The band plays expansive, progressive Rock & Roll, open-ended enough to encourage improv and noodling but structured enough to ring memorably in the listener's head. You hear echoes of legendary rockers like The Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead and Black Crowes (even a little Pearl Jam at their broadest), but the Perrformances have enough of their own personality to give GO its own distinctiveness...."

"....The fluidity of the album is magnetic, as the songs gush with an engaging
stream-of-conscious vibe despite the occasional tempo and rhythmic
shifts...."
"...With its organic, trippy, spacious and soulful slant on Classic Rock, A Long Way From Middle Creek is one of the best "Jam band" releases the Cincinnati area has ever produced. (grandoversoul.com)"
- CityBeat-by: MikeBreen