Grey Campaign

A jam band is a hard thing to pull off. If you are going to ask me to sit and listen to hour long rants that generally amount to musical masturbation, you’d better find something to keep my attention. All too many of these groups are 3 drummers, two guys from the jazz band that play guitar, a bass player with fingers of iron and a keyboardist that plays to many notes. I left out the lead singer. Short of the greats of the genre (the Dead, Phish and the inimitable Dave Matthews) who even listens to them, hell some of them don’t even have them. So that moniker immediately makes me wary.


I am glad it doesn’t make me too wary to check them out though. If it did I would have missed this treasure from right across the river. I can’t express just how good these guys have to be to get here. They have proven me wrong twice, good things come from New Jersey that are not named Springsteen and I guess that I am open to, dare I say it, a jam band. I don’t feel bad though, this is not just any jam band. They found a way to not only keep my attention and leave me wanting more but possibly even motivated me to cross that river to the west to listen to music. I am not sure if I have to swim or renew my passport or canoe. I have never tried, but to hear Grey Campaign live I will figure it out.


These guys have texture so rich that listening amounts to mining for aural gold. Rarely do I find myself unable to put my finger on what I like about a band. I can usually point out that one superlative pretty readily. As a producer, I exploit it, as an artist, I rely on it and as a writer I try to point it out for others but here it is just not that simple. This may be the perfect example musically of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

With that said lets look at the parts.


Lead singer A.T Hunt is magical at the mic. He is a wonderfully odd singer himself. While the tone of his voice immediately reminds me Eliot Sloan of Blessed Union of Souls, the similarity stops at tone and timbre. He has a no-nonsense, strong voice that, though it is described in bios as soulful, is so much more. It has element of funk, strong overtones of straight forward rock and just a little shadow of R&B. He effortlessly bounces between a ska sound reminiscent of Roland Gift and performed just as well, to a real rock front man and then into kind of a cool indie sound all his own. He is both producers dream, and I am sure the subject of many female audience members’ nocturnal musings, though for distinctly different reason.


We look to the axe men next and this is almost a dual, a beautiful, ballet like, balanced and fascinating dual. On one side we have a jazz technician weaving melodic and clean rhythm lines that make you want to put on your sunglasses, kick back with a glass of scotch and just groove. (John Ryon) Then some guy, (Jon Kozodoy) turns up his tube amp and tries to wake you up utilizing the hands of Robert Cray and the tone of Stevie Ray Vaughn himself. (One guitar geek to another Mr. Kozodoy, don’t change anything in your rig. EVER) The two create a tapestry, seamlessly slipping in and out of lead and rhythm, one not trying to up the other but almost respecting the other’s differences. I have heard a ton of two guitar bands and my fair share that try to switch off lead. I have never seen it work… until now.


Generally a funk bass player in a rock band is like tequila shots. They sound like a good idea at the time but you end up regretting it. Tim Brown is not one of those cases. If the bass is the foundation upon which a band is built then Grey Campaign need not worry about their house falling down, even in a hurricane. He disappears when he should, simply laying ground work to build on, carrying the band around on his back without complaining or begging for the spotlight as is the case with all too many talented bassists. When it is his moment to shine, shine he does. Tastefully appropriate bass work but a personality all his own. This man is a find for any band but uniquely suited for this one.


I really think that the band got together and said, “What haven’t we done? What genre have we missed? What cross classification myth haven’t we shattered?” and then got drunk, real, real drunk. I can picture it as if I was there. Somebody completely joking, blurted out, “Let’s get a metal drummer!!! Ha, ha, ha.” I wish I had thought of it. Jeremy Pace was a brilliant idea and is a brilliant drummer. He obviously has the chops to just tear into tunes but his brilliance is displayed more in his restraint. Grey Campaign’s percussion is certainly busier than their peers given Pace’s background but they don’t seem to mind defying convention and as with the other rebellions they have mounted, it works.


If I had to give one more nod to these guys (as if I haven’t given you enough reasons to run to a show) Mr. Hunt delivers yet again. I am a big proponent of front men lyricists and writers. What could fit your voice better than, well, your voice? Hunt forgoes pretension and drama and sings about life. It sounds like he sings about his life, simple, to the point this is how it is. The Hemmingway-esque lack of complication is juxtaposed to the rich landscape of the instrumental but I think that is the only way it would work.


Though I don’t think I let on, I do have a concern. The recordings out there now really don’t present this work in its best light. Don’t get me wrong, it is not a matter of bad or good it’s just not optimized. This is music that is by nature, is meant to be heard live and I was missing that in the recordings. They are a bit sterile and produced. Handled correctly, you can record that magic and share it with audiences that are not able to get to you. I have heard that a new album is done and I am hoping that the guys put it in the hands of a producer with the same mindset and talent this work deserves.


Don’t be turned off by the lack of material out there, these guys are new. Be sure to catch the wave though, if justice in the music world exists and they stay the course, this is a band that will gain a head of steam and become unstoppable. As I said, I have heard new material is forth coming and I will update here as soon as they let me know. Meanwhile, does anybody want to go to Jersey? I am scared.



MH


Disclaimer: The humor about my grand neighbors across the Hudson is just that. I love you guys over there and if I didn’t I wouldn’t tell you because all I need is to have the Soprano’s come over here and visit me. Besides Bon Jovi is not your fault. It could happen to anybody. See you soon at a Grey Campaign concert

http://songsfromthehat.blogspot.com/2009/12/grey-campaign-way-it-works.html
Dec 4, 2009 - Songs From the Hat