Stargrass
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Stargrass

Tacoma, Washington, United States | INDIE

Tacoma, Washington, United States | INDIE
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"the Stranger, Seattle, WA"

Ted Wallis and Orange(chop suey) Ted Wallis’s music is like sweet tea indeed--it's mellow, goes down smooth, and lingers in your senses afterward. A look at the band's lineup bespeaks variety: You've got a drummer versed in jazz and world music, a guitarist whose last project was a funk band, and a songwriter who started recording Orange’s 2005 Mr Whatever, before ever lining up the band. From all of this has emerged a unity of sound that's melodic, flavorful, and easy on the ears. In that sense, the band's stated intention to embrace a '60s sort of sound is successful, though no one is going to mistake them for Quicksilver Messenger Service. Groovy, baby. GENEVIEVE WILLIAMS - Genevieve Williams


"Victory Review July 2008"

I must admit some confusion about local singer/songwriter Ted Wallis' latest release, Mind Full of Crime, nine well-written, tightly played nuggets of seventies rock.

The booklet lists the recording
under his name, with Ted playing much of the instruments, though he does get help from a few
people on drums, guitars, and bass ..tracks. But the other information accompanying
the disc lists this as the first album for Ted's new band, Ted Wallis and the Broken Days, which will have a CD release party at Jazzbones soon. The confusion is that none of the listed band members are noted as having actually performed
on the recording, and considering two members of the band play violin and viola, which are not
on the disc at all, I'm not sure what to make of this.

That being said, it's a great set of very personal sounding songs that don't always go where you think they should, and Wallis' voice
blends between mildly gritty to pure falsetto with stunning ability.

Mind Full of Crime took three years to record, after the dissolution of
his last band, Orange, and the new group he's put together to tour for the new music should add extra flavors , especially that =string section.

With the public eye coming back
around towards Seattle again, Ted Wallis and the Broken Days could be a band to watch out for.


- James Rodgers


"Mail Tribune, Medford Oregon March 2010"

Ted Wallis and Stargrass at Johnny B's
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From left: Christian Carlson, Ted Wallis, Joe Bean and Bennet Pullen are the newly formed Stargrass.
March 19, 2010
Teresa Thomas
By Teresa Thomas
Mail Tribune

It doesn't matter who's playing it, just so long as it's being played, Ted Wallis might say.

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Ted Wallis has been writing music for nearly a decade. Like many musicians, his bands have come together, played for a while, and then the players went their separate ways. Now he's on band No. 4 — Stargrass.

Besides Wallis, Stargrass comprises guitarist Joe Bean, drummer Christian Carlson and bassist Bennet Pullen.

“It's taken seven or eight years to come up with the lineup, and this lineup seems pretty sturdy,” Wallis says.

Stargrass will perform at 9 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, March 22-23, at Johnny B's, 35 S. Bartlett St., Medford.

The band is promoting two albums, “Mind Full of Crime,” released in 2008, and “Coward,” to be released early this summer. The albums feature songs written and arranged by Wallis.

“It's almost like a greatest hits tour with a lot of stuff I hadn't recorded and music from all different eras,” he said.

Bean and Wallis played in the band Sweet T in 2000, before forming Orange in 2002. For three years, Orange toured nationally and produced four recordings including “Assembly,” “Push,” “Mr. Whatever” and “Mind Full of Crime,” which features some Orange material and several of Wallis' newer songs. Orange parted ways in 2005, when several members settled down, and Carlson headed off to Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Wallis' next group, Ted Wallis and the Broken Days, performed primarily around Seattle until it broke up in 2009. When Carlson returned from school, he and Wallis decided to pick up where they left off under the new name, Stargrass. They were joined by their former comrade Bean, as well as Pullen, who was recommended by a fellow bass player.

The group plays funk, R&B, jazz and rock 'n' roll.

Both albums demonstrate the versatility of Wallis' writing. “Mind Full of Crime” includes several light-hearted funk songs with the psychedelic and acoustic rock 'n' roll played by Orange, Wallis says. “Coward” has moodier and blues-based funk elements, incorporates lots of viola, cello and violin and contains post-Orange material.

“It's kind of like '70s album rock like some of my heroes,” Wallis says, mentioning Supertramp and Steely Dan.

“We got a new band and we're going to hit it,” he says.Cover to the show at Johnny B's is $5. Call 541-773-1900. - Teresa Thomas


"the DailyTidings, Ashland OR March 2010"

Tidings Café: Stargrass
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Stargrass members from left, Ted Wallis, Chris Carlson and Joe Bean perform at Tidings Cafe Wednesday. Photo by Mandy Valencia
By Nick Morgan
Ashland Daily Tidings
March 27, 2010

Washington blues/folk rock quartet Stargrass is four musicians from very different backgrounds, but like the members' influences the band is more than the sum of its parts.

Their chemistry shows through in their Tidings Café performance of "Done with Me," a thoughtful song about the heartbreak of drifting apart sung to guitarist and songwriter Ted Wallis' high falsetto that harkens back to an era when Supertramp's "Breakfast in America" was in 8-track decks across the country.

"It's really kind of a tight unit and it really grooves pretty heavy at times," Stargrass frontman and guitarist Ted Wallis said about his bandmates' melding during funk rhythm parts of the song.
Related Stories

* Tidings Cafe: Stargrass

After spending nearly a decade fronting Seattle-area startups that came and went, Wallis has assembled a team of musicians as passionate and dedicated to professionalism as he is. From gifted young drummer Chris Carlson to fellow Seattle music scene veterans Joe Bean on guitar and Bennet Pullen on bass, each member has the experience needed to play their part well.

"It's really been refreshing because usually I would kind of run the show a little bit but now it's like it's not as much, and we've come up with some really great ideas that I wouldn't have thought of arrangement-wise and it's because of their excellence," Wallis said.

Most of the lineup has been assembled from the ashes of Wallis' previous projects. Bean used to play in Wallis' first band called Sweet Tea, and Wallis worked with Carlson while touring with a band called Orange, which found some success on college radio in the mid-2000s, primarily throughout the Midwest before the band folded in 2006.

"We toured for a couple years and I met Chris," Wallis said about his days in Orange, "We'd gone through like a bunch of drummers touring and stuff, and I met Chris and he was only 17 at the time but was definitely head and shoulders the best drummer that I'd ever played with."

Orange folded about the same time Carlson left to attend the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., and graduated last May. There he learned to play different styles, music theory and composition.

"It grew me by every way possible as a musician," Carlson said.

After graduation, Carlson reconnected with Wallis, and the band started performing in September.

The band spent Monday and Tuesday nights performing at Johnny B's in Medford and at the Caldera Tap House Wednesday night in support of their new CD, "Coward," a collection of modern yet orchestrated songs with introspective lyrics on heartbreak, love and being human.

"I really like the production of like a lot of strings and layered guitars in bands like Supertramp and Steely Dan and even Led Zeppelin for that matter, they didn't spare anything in the studio," Wallis said. "I definitely like the 70s production style, and that's what I kind of wanted to do in this record."

The album will be available for digital download after the band returns from the tour from their Web site at www.stargrass.org, but pre-release copies will be available at another show at the Caldera Tap House tonight at 9 p.m., a concert no music fan should miss.

Despite that the band hadn't spent much time in Southern Oregon before, the band credits local venues' warm reception to the band as the reason for touring so heavily in the area. The tour was Bean's first time in Southern Oregon.

"It worked out for what it was, and we got to spend some time in Medford which was kind of cool," Bean said. "Ashland seems a little funner though, we kind of like Ashland a little bit better. There's more life going on and the downtown area's pretty cool."

Be sure to check out Stargrass' performance of "Done with Me" at dailytidings.com or check out the Tidings Café group on ConnectAshland.com at connectashland.com/group/tidingscafe. - Nick Morgan


Discography

Sweet Tea Assembly 1999 Monument Recordings, inc.
Orange, "Push" 2003. Monument Recordings, inc.
Orange, "Mr. Whatever" EP 2005.
Ted Wallis and the Broken Days, "Mind full of Crime" to be released in May '08.

Coward will be released in the spring of 2010.

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Bio

North West singer/songwriter Ted Wallis is a multi instrumentalist who started playing drums at age 10, and later taught himself to sing, play guitar, and write music. Ted’s last band Orange toured nationally and released two albums, “ASSEMBLY, 2002,” “PUSH, 2004,” and an EP, “Mr. Whatever, 2005,” under the Moonsongz Recordings label. With grassroots promotion and fan support, the album PUSH sold several thousand copies and received radio airplay from nearly 70 college/commercial stations nationwide.

Orange stopped touring in 2005 and after a handful of lineup changes, Ted decided to take a couple years off from touring and regroup.

2007 saw the forming of Ted Wallis and the Broken Days featuring an interesting mesh of some of Seattle's most talented musicians. In Late 2008 He released "Mind full of Crime" which was comprised of some unfinished works by Orange and new material he had written. His latest musical offering, Stargrass will release their first record in the Spring of 2010 entitled Coward.

Stargrass's music is largely influenced by Ted's heroes like Supertramp, Steely Dan, and Ziggy Stardust, “mind full of crime” combines elements of the blues-based funk Ted wrote in Orange with psychedelic and acoustic rock n roll. Ted’s lyrics touch on the human experience, covering elements of love and life lost, boredom, infatuation, dishonor, disillusionment, entitlement, injustice, optimism and fear.

Stargrass has an extremely energetic live set. Although only having been together since June of '09 the band has been playing non stop with some limited regional touring. They will embark on their first tour along the West coast in March of this year.