Gunnar & The Grizzly Boys
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Gunnar & The Grizzly Boys

Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States | SELF

Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States | SELF
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"Playing at B-93 Birthday Bash 'surreal' for some performers (photo gallery)"

The competition was intense backstage at the B-93 Birthday Bash on Sunday.

No, members of Gunnar and the Grizzly Boys, Josh Kelley and Ashton Shepherd and various members of their bands and crews weren’t competing over who was the best performer of the day; rather, the potpourri of country artists were throwing circular metal discs at targets a few feet away.

“It’s called Texas Washers,” Shepherd, 24, said, watching as Kelley carefully pitched a disc.

“No, it’s Texas Horseshoes,” one of the players corrected her.

Actually, it’s called both, and the story goes that Texas oil workers created the game of washers as a way to pass time in the oil fields. These singers and musicians obviously were passing time enjoyably backstage during a day spent playing in front of 40,000 music fans at the U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin for the annual country music festival. (Saturdays' event drew 65,000 country music fans.)

“Honestly, (performing at the Bash) was surreal,” said Joe Rood, 23, rhythm guitar player for Gunnar and the Grizzly Boys, who opened Sunday’s Bash at 10 a.m. with a wild and wooly half-hour set. The Kent City/Grand Rapids-based band's first paying gig was seven months ago at The Intersection, 133 Grandville Ave. SW.

“We signed autographs for two and a half hours today, and we had tears in our eyes.”

Kip Moore and his band, including guitarist David Lapsley, followed Rood’s group, and they, too, had a tremendous experience playing in front of that many raucous fans.

“We heard about this festival in Nashville,” said Moore, who played his hit song “Mary Was the Marrying Kind. “It’s definitely known as one of the better festivals. It just doesn’t get any better than this."

After Randy Montana’s well-received set, Ashton Shepherd, maybe the first pregnant Bash performer ever, took the stage. The mother of son James, 5, brought her little boy onstage for some dancing to tunes such as her clever hit “Look It Up” and a boisterous cover of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s old gem, “Fishing in the Dark.”

“Everybody knows that song,” she said, “I just love playing it.”

The Coffeeville, Ala., native, whose new album “Where Country Grows,” drops July 12, is excited about the pending arrival of her little girl, whom she plans to name Raden Delilah.

“I am super close to Roland (her husband)’s mama, and her name is Rachel,” she said. “My mama’s middle name is Denise so one day it came to me that I could name her after both of them.”

MCA Nashville recording artist Josh Kelley didn’t mention his famous brother (Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum) or his famous wife (actress Katherine Heigl) during his rocking hour-long set of covers and original songs. Good thing his music stands firmly on its own.

From the hillbilly, sped-up version of Tom Petty’s “American Girl” to the aching tenderness of “Naleigh’s Moon,” dedicated to “all the daddies out there on Father’s Day,” Kelley's beautiful voice and ace guitar skills proved he is a big deal all on his own.

Gary Allan sang songs from his latest disc, “Get Off on the Pain,” as well as his from his 15-year catalog. At the day’s finale, country star and headliner Josh Turner delighted the crowd with his hour-long set and that famous how-low-can-he-go deep voice. Turner sang tunes from his latest disc, “Haywire,” including his No. 1 hit "Why Don't We Just Dance.”

E-mail the author of this story: yourlife@grpress.com


- Grand Rapids Press


"Up Close and Personal Gunnar & the Grizzly Boys on a musical mission"

Up Close and Personal
Gunnar & the Grizzly Boys on a musical mission
by Brandy VanDenbrook, A&E Editor Published: Feb 2, 2011

Gunnar & the Grizzly Boys is a band that has “hit the ground run­ning” when it comes to expe­ri­enc­ing suc­cess with its music.

The band, which played at The Gate this past Saturday, is com­posed of six mem­bers, includ­ing Ferris stu­dent Rob Mason, who is a senior in the mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing program.

In addi­tion to Mason, the band includes Gunnar Nyblad, acoustic gui­tarist, singer, song­writer for the band, and MSU grad­u­ate in the agri­cul­tural sci­ence pro­gram; Joe Rood, singer, acoustic gui­tarist, and stu­dent in the com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­gram at Grand Valley State University; Shane Grehan, lead gui­tarist and MSU nurs­ing stu­dent; Chris Newberg, key­board player, gui­tar player, MSU com­mu­ni­ca­tions grad­u­ate, and Cooley Law stu­dent; and Joe Connolly, drum­mer and MSU com­mu­ni­ca­tions graduate.

Gunnar & the Grizzly Boys formed in 2009 when Nyblad began look­ing for a band to help him per­form his songs. He met Grehan, Newberg, and Connolly at MSU and asked his home­town friends Rood and Mason to join.

“Gunnar was attend­ing MSU when he called me up and asked if I wanted to be in a coun­try band with him and some MSU guys,” said Mason. “I kind of chuck­led and said, ‘What the heck, it could be fun.’”

Mason and Nyblad went to school together and have a musi­cal his­tory that goes back to before the for­ma­tion of their cur­rent band.

“In eighth grade I joined a punk band with my two best friends from high school, Gunnar Nyblad and Tom Rau,” said Mason. “We stuck together through high school.”

That band even­tu­ally faded and Nyblad began work­ing on solo acoustic pieces.

“His songs sounded pretty good to me and I kept telling him we needed to get some guys together and play some of these tunes as a full band,” said Mason.

Newberg had sim­i­lar thoughts on Nyblad’s song­writ­ing and said, “He’s good at it and does a lot of it. He sings a lot of songs from his point of view on life expe­ri­ences. It’s all pretty real stuff.”

The band tries to stay close to its coun­try roots, and on July 23, 2010, they released their first album called “Homegrown.” The album fea­tures 12 orig­i­nal tracks, which were all writ­ten by Nyblad.

“We tend to stick close to what peo­ple would con­sider Americana-rock or coun­try,” said Newberg. “That said, we’ve also been known to play some ‘90s punk songs from time to time. I guess that’s a part of our lives we just can’t shake.”

The band draws inspi­ra­tion from many sources includ­ing Bruce Springsteen and The Zac Brown Band. Mason said his per­sonal sources of inspi­ra­tion include his dad, who encour­aged him to pur­sue music from a young age, his sis­ter, and Bob Dylan.

“My older sis­ter Rachel is prob­a­bly the per­son who first inspired me to pick up a gui­tar and start singing,” said Mason. “She is incred­i­bly tal­ented and essen­tially taught me every­thing I know.”

The band has really caught people’s atten­tion and started out by open­ing for a sold-out Justin Moore con­cert at the Intersection, a music venue in Grand Rapids.

“In a lit­tle over a year’s time we’ve played a dozen or so more shows at the Intersection, won the B93 Honky Tonk Heroes coun­try bat­tle of the bands, released an album, have been lucky enough to get decent radio play, and played dozens of shows in and out of Michigan,” said Newberg.

“I owe our suc­cess to Gunnar’s per­sonal drive, our amaz­ing home­town fans, and all our friends and fam­ily who have never stopped sup­port­ing us,” said Mason. “And maybe a lit­tle hard work and practice.”

Mason was dri­ving to East Lansing from Big Rapids once or twice a week dur­ing school to prac­tice, but said he still man­aged to do alright in his classes.

The band has des­ig­nated prac­tice usu­ally once a week, but even when they are just hang­ing out together they usu­ally end up play­ing music.

“I guess you’d call that hav­ing a one-track mind,” said Newberg. “Collectively, we do like to fish any­where we can. Some of us hunt, some of us study, some of us don’t. We pretty much all hang out together most of the time though. We seem to have sim­i­lar inter­ests and dis­po­si­tions, so I guess it works out pretty well.”

Mason reflected on how much he enjoys sim­ply cre­at­ing music with his best friends and see­ing peo­ple enjoy the songs he and his friends play.

“My favorite thing about being in this band is trav­el­ing in our 1986 Dodge Ram Van, aka the Hillbilly Hummer, and play­ing music for new peo­ple every week­end,” said Mason.

If you missed their show this past week­end and want to know more, check out Gunnar & the Grizzly Boys on their web­site at gun?nar?tunes?.com. You can also fol­low them
on Facebook. n - The Torch


"Playing at home"

July 20, 2010
Patty Ramus
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Shane Grehan was angry when his sister received her first guitar before he did.

The sibling rivalry ignited a passion that would eventually lead to his involvement with Gunnar and the Grizzly Boys, a country western band that draws on influences from a variety of musical genres. The band is one of the musical groups performing during the Michigan Brown Trout Festival. Its show took place Tuesday night.

Grehan, an Alpena native, said he began playing guitar around eighth grade. He was in several punk bands before he started listening to blues and began to play more with that style. By high school he had been "jamming" with people including Andy Wozniak and Donny Hartman.

Grehan's involvement with his current band began around August 2009 when he was introduced to Gunnar Nyblad, a Kent City native, in East Lansing before Grehan started his school year at Michigan State University. He began playing with Nyblad and other future Grizzly Boys band members. The group officially was formed in November and its first gig was opening for Justin Moore at The Intersection in Grand Rapids during the same month, he said.

"We've got a pretty edgy sound. Our band is pretty vocally driven," Grehan said.

Nyblad said the band's general manager and lead vocalist, the six member group incorporates styles such as rock 'n' roll and classic rock with strong country lyrics. Its music has appealed to different ages, from children through adults. The group will perform at other shows this summer and will be shooting its first music video in early August.

The group has developed a strong following since its formation. As of Tuesday afternoon the band had 1,921 fans on its Facebook page. It also has opened for Gretchen Wilson and played in different venues across the state. Its first album, "HomeGrown," is scheduled to be released on Friday, though attendees of the Brown Trout show had a chance to purchase the CD ahead of time. Grehan never expected the band's popularity to grow as quickly as it has.

"I was looking for maybe a couple bars to play at in East Lansing and (Nyblad) got me back into playing guitar and where I want to be," he said.

The Grizzly Boys' exposure to Wilson helped land its gig at the Brown Trout Festival. Grehan said his mother, Jan, sent a picture of the band members with Wilson to the festival committee, which contacted him about coming to play.

On Tuesday afternoon, Grehan expressed excitement over getting his chance to play in his own home town. In past shows the other band members have been able to play in front of their families, friends or fans from their old stomping grounds.

"When I was asked to play this show I was extremely honored," he said. "It's emotional to play for my grandparents, my mom and my friends."

Grehan said he is entering his senior year at MSU and is studying nursing. While the band is a high priority, he wants to continue his education in the medical field on through graduate school, so he has foundation if the music business doesn't work out for him.

"Right now I'm just trying to concentrate on the band and put the band first. You're only young once and only get one opportunity," he said.

Patty Ramus can be reached via e-mail at pramus@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.
© Copyright 2011 The Alpena News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. - The Alpena News


"Local band to release new 'country' CD"

Local band Gunnar and the Grizzly Boys sat down with The State News to discuss their music in anticipation of “Home Grown,” the CD the band is releasing this month.
The band consists of communication senior Joe Connolly on drums, interdisciplinary studies in social science and health studies junior Shane Grehan on guitar, MSU alumni Gunnar Nyblad as lead singer and Chris Newberg on keyboard, Grand Valley State University student Joe Rood on rhythm guitar and back-up vocals and Ferris State University student Rob Mason on bass.
The group has opened up for big country names including Gretchen Wilson and Justin Moore and plan to continue with their band in to the future.
The State News What do you think makes your band unique from other local artists?
Joe Rood Different style. We all come together … I have an ear for folk and things like that and writing. Joe (Connolly) is a percussion master, and (Chris Newberg) is the “fingers of a generation.” Shane’s just a blues guitarist who can shred and (Rob Mason’s) got the harmonies and the bass line. We each bring something different and it works well together. We have good drive — some people are better leaders than others, some people help us run and some people try to communicate the best they can (to) get everything in gear to drive this machine.
Chris Newberg We’re just making noise together.
Joe Connolly I think what also makes us special is that if you were to pull out our iPods right now, we would all be listening to something completely different — from rock to blues to country. It’s all different and we all play music together.
JR We all have a love for music, in general. You go through Chris’s CD book and find just the widest array of music from early ’90s country to Bob Dylan to the Gorillaz to Spice Girls to Ace of Base. He knows it all and he appreciates music.
SN What do you love about music?
JR It’s an escape. For however long you’re on stage, you’re on stage playing a song and that’s the only thing that’s on your mind. You’re just trying to do the best you can and even when you’re just (playing) in your spare time, sitting at your house … everything goes into what you’re doing at the moment and you don’t think about the big deals or your problems. For the three minutes and 40 seconds you’re playing a particular song, you’re just there — you’re in the song.
JC I’ve found with more and more people coming to the shows, the part I love about it is that we work really hard at creating this sound and this music, and it affects a lot of people. Everybody always leaves the show having a good time. It’s almost like another way to party.
JR It’s connecting with people in order to party hard.
Shane Grehan Everyone brings their own unique personality to the band, which makes it extremely interesting.
CN Instead of a Nashville band, where everyone’s trying to play country at the same time, everyone’s playing something different.
JR We still play what we like to play and what comes out is going to fit in the country genre, I guess, but we’re far from that.
Gunnar Nyblad We are the country genre, no guessing about it.
JR We are, but we’re individuals.
SG If we play “Achy Breaky Heart,” (by Billy Ray Cyrus), we’re definitely in the country genre.
SN Is it difficult to take all these individual personalities and make them in to one sound?
SG At first it was, because I didn’t expect this.
JR It took a while to learn everyone’s tendencies. Like how Joe (Connolly) drums and how (Rob) plays the bass and Shane with the guitar and Chris with the keys, but once you figure that out you know what to look for and how to read each others’ body language and by that time it’s easy.
CN That’s when you become a band.
JR That’s when you really do become not a group of guys playing together, but you become a band and you can work together on stage.
GN I have to commend the band for how much they enjoy playing ever since day one. We really do like to rock out, but just sort of how humble they are. Each person gets their own time to shine and then they can sit back and play the right music at the perfect place it’s supposed to be played. That’s the biggest thing — there’s no egos and there never really has been. Just how we all come in (and) do our job.
SN Who do you guys count among your influences?
GN Bruce Springsteen.
SG Probably Stevie. Stevie Ray Vaughan.
JR I like the old-school folky-country, like Ricky Skaggs and Shenandoah. Like the late ’80s, early ’90s — that kind of stuff really tuned my ear to listening to country. These days you have Zac Brown and Eric Church. They’re great and that’s what I want to be like some day. That good at what I do.
JC I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a huge Blink-182 fan. I know Joe (Rood) has said in the past that it’s a big part of what he’s done, but that’s 90 percent of why I started playing drums.
CN I like Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Troy Yocum. I like music that is band-driven, because I appreciate the band.
JC I think one artist we all agree on is William Hung … or Susan Boyle.
For more information on the band Gunnar and the Grizzly Boys or to see a touring schedule, visit their Facebook page or their website at gunnartunes.com.
Compiled by State News Reporter Cole Bertsos

- The State News


"Local country band Gunnar and the Grizzly Boys known for wild stage presence"

GRAND RAPIDS -- Gunnar and the Grizzly Boys have made a big impact on the Grand Rapids country music scene in a short period of time.

After forming in November 2009, the band's first gig was opening country star Justin Moore's Nov. 19 show at The Intersection, 133 Grandville Ave SW.

"That's a lot of trust in a couple of local kids," said lead singer and guitarist Gunnar Nyblad, a Kent City native.

Nyblad, 22, put together the band with childhood friends Joe Rood and Rob Mason, who play rhythm guitar and bass, respectively, and provide backing vocals. Rounding out the band are Nyblad's fellow MSU students Shane Grehan, 21, of Alpena (lead guitar), Joe Connolly, 22, of Rochester Hills (drums) and Chris Newberg, 23, of Rockford (keyboards).

The band's sound is fueled by Grehan's blues-style guitar playing, which adds a rock edge to its music, Nyblad said.

Since its opening gig for Moore, the Grizzly Boys opened for country mega-star Gretchen Wilson in February at The Intersection and won WBCT-FM (93.7)'s Honky Tonk Heroes competition earlier this month at the venue.

The band describes its music as heavily influenced by both country and rock, naming a spectrum from Johnny Cash to Jamey Johnson to Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty

Rood said pop-punk bands such as Blink-182 inspired him, Nyblad and Mason to begin playing music as kids and fuel their high-energy performances.

"It's more of the way we are and the presence we have," Rood said. "It's about entertaining people. They paid money to see a show, and we're going to give them the best show we can."

Rood said the band's on-stage presence, which has twice resulted in guitar-smashing, is a big part of its growing popularity.

"Whenever we're on stage, it's not even real life. It's like, I can do whatever I want," Rood said. "We have ignorance on our side, being younger, so we get really wild."

The Grizzly Boys beat out 15 other bands in the month-long Honky Tonk Heroes contest to win $2,000 and airplay on WBCT-FM (93.7).

The money is being used to record an album, which the band plans release in late July.

"We want to make sure the CD is smoking-good," Nyblad said. "It's a quality product."

The Grizzly Boys hope to hit it big someday, but band members are humbled by the amount of success they have had so quickly.

"The progress and momentum we've picked up, for not even being a band for a year, is incredible," Nyblad said. - The Grand Rapids Press


Discography

Homegrown
Country My Whole Life

Photos

Bio

There is no experience as true to homegrown American country music as Gunnar & the Grizzly Boys live in concert. Their electrifying sound hits you like a shot of Jack Daniels, and the words shine through like your best friend recalling a favorite memory. The sheer energy brought by the Grizzlies cannot be contained on stage, but explodes into the audience putting everyone on their feet.

Combining country and rock, Gunnar & the Grizzly Boys provide a unique style that sparks every emotion. They transform from an outlaw telling the tale of his horseback journey across America to a genuine patriot giving thanks to our troops. These six young men may be finding their way in the world, but they have truly mastered the formula of simply awesome rock and roll. Leave your worries at home, and get ready to dirty up your boots!