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To download electronic press kit materials, including a pdf bio, high resolution color and b&w photos, click here.
What the critics are saying:
"How does the second installment of the Grandsons' 'Legendary Wolf Trap Recordings' differ from the first? Only the names change, really. A fresh and typically eclectic array of songwriters contribute to the set list this time around, but otherwise the performances are dependably lively, rootsy and affectionate."
Mike Joyce, The Washington Post
"Occasionally innocent and yearning but more often clever, lively and amusing, 'Party with the Rich' is brimming with tunes that should delight fans of the Grandsons--or anyone else, for that matter, who enjoys vintage pop, country, rock, jazz and R&B sounds rendered with more affection than reverence."
Mike Joyce, The Washington Post
"Bands like the Grandsons are a paradox; jealously guarded secrets and highly suggested listening. Incredibly intelligent but highly accessible."
Christopher Porter, No Depression
"Lyrically, it's tough not to smile or even laugh out loud. Take the title cut: sarcasm mixes with social commentary as we do exactly what the title says...it's a fine opener. 'Hip Replacement' isn't about a body part. In fact, it references selling Blue Note albums for a quarter, which is why he needs the 'hip' replaced. These two are among several excellent originals. There are also inspired covers. How about Roger Miller's 'Trouble on the Turnpike' with a rollicking trade of eights between the guitar and sax? Smoky Robinson's 'In Case You Need Love' features a guitar figurea that becomes the song's primary hook. There's also stuff associated with Howard Tate and Allen Toussaint done up right. It's always fun to find a band that's a little off-the-wall and has great players. The Grandsons definitely fit the bill."
Vintage Guitar
"'Party with the Rich,' like the band's previous four albums, is a frequently irresistible musical hodgepodge that finds rockabilly and old-time R&B rubbing shoulders with frat-boy rock and bouncy '60s pop. There are fine covers here of tunes by Roger Miller ('Trouble on the Turnpike') and Smokey Robinson ('In Case You Need Love'), as well as irony-tinged Grandsons originals such as 'Weekly World Blues,' which comically fuses a failed romance with headlines from a supermarket tabloid.'
The Myrtle Beach Sun
"Rich sounds fill Grandsons' 'Party': Add Washington, D.C.'s Grandsons to the list of party bands I'd like to hire for the rowdy, all-night holiday fiesta I'm going to throw one of these years. (I'd have these guys take the stage right after South Carolina's Blue Dogs and just before New Orleans' Iguanas.)"
Greg Crawford,Orlando Sentinel
"If you like your Roger Miller served with a dash of Smokey Robinson and a shot of Howard Tate, the Grandsons will be able to keep you shaken and stirred..."
Jane Norris, Charlottesville Daily Progress
"This roots-rock band sprinkles a few fine originals with obscurities from
Allen Toussaint, Roger Miller and Smokey Robinson. The Grandsons are better
than most bands of its ilk, mostly because of it's sense of humor and Chris
Watling, whose honking saxophone provides a distinctive sound. Grade B + "
Sauk Valley News, Chicago
"When the Grandsons returned from a trip to New Orleans in May 2001, they plaed the Wolf Trap Barns and commenced to rattle its rough-hewn rafters with a genre-hopping, sax-streaked melange of party music...The Festive atmosphere is captured on 'Live at the Barns', the quartet's new CD, which reflects its untethered taste for R&B novelties, vintage bluegrass and folk hits, and the occasional calypso romp." Mike Joyce, The Washington Post
"The ultimate roots rock party band." David Furst, WAMU 88.5FM, Washington DC
"D.C.'s favorite horn-powered American-party-music synthesists..." Joel Sparks, On Tap Magazine, Washington DC
"...The combo makes for a lively show as the recent disc, 'Live At the Barns', reveals. The horn is as important as guitar in the sum. The live disc pumps out hip shakers one after the other, as they roll through witty originals and old-time covers like "One Mint Julep" and "Scotch and Soda." Samir Shukla, Charlotte Creative Loafing
"Washington, D.C. quartet the Grandsons make a grab-bag sound that borrows from more genres that Beck while still remaining unequivocally old-school American. This outfit tosses off snippets of Dixieland rhythm here, some easy walking R&B bass lines and brass there, and then laces such motifs over straight-up country and western songs, sweep-you-away western-swing melodies, and rockabilly's familiar jitters. Somehow the Grandsons pull it off seamlessly without sounding like a collage. As a result, its honky-tonk hustle can jibe with both alt-country hipsters and country traditionalists, or people who just like music that complements a casual good time." Baltimore City Paper
"'Pan-American Shindig' is pretty much what it's cracked up to be: a hemisphere-hopping, honky-tonkin' good time. It's a barn dance waiting to happen...By celebrating both sides of the C&W equation, as well as reveling in Latin grooves and Chuck Berry riffs, the Grandsons make certain that 'Shindig' lives up to its billing."
Mike Joyce, The Washington Post
"To say that the disc is all over the map is to compliment the 'Sons on their musical versatility and smart egalitarianism. They call it roots-pop, and Shindig cavorts brightly from Western swing and rockabilly to New Orleans-style R&B to Tex-Mex and mambo--always with smiling wit."
Dave Nuttycombe, Washington City Paper
"Catchy pop songs with a humorous twist. The Grandsons' approach is goofy fun with an innocence and love for rock 'n' roll that reminds me of Jonathan Richman or the early Violent Femmes."
Rounder Record Roundup
"The Grandsons -- One of the most fun bands to hit town in recent memory, the Grandsons present a wonderful sense of musical roots, and extraordinary talent. They've been at it for years, and it's always fresh and entertaining. It will be an evening full of surprises, and a sanctuary from the Music Midtown Festival."
James Kelly, Atlanta Creative Loafing
"A sound so free-spirited and so subversively anti-sophisticate that it's practically new territory"
Eve Zibart, The Washington Post
"A must see!" The Gavin Report
"Talk about versatility! ...Underlying the diversity is a lighthearted spirit and joy in the music as on 'It Works For Me', 'Silly Dilly', 'Yodel Your Blues Away'; think of the Iguanas with a Marx Brothers attitude. The secret of their appeal lies in the exuberant lead vocals of Alan MacEwen and the double treat playing of Chris Watling who switches off on accordion and saxes." David Goodman, Modern Twang--An Alternative Country Music Guide & Directory
"Call it roots rock, call it hillbilly pop, this is a hybrid sound that gets the proportions right."
Rickey Wright, The Richmond News Leader
"The fun these guys are having leaps right off of the disc and makes the album a sinful pleasure"
Scott Homewood, Indie File
"They get the crowd dancing and having a good ole' time better than almost any other band around."
April Saurwine, Scene Magazine
"'It's Hip to Flip' is definitely hip." Mike Joyce, The Washington Post
"Vocally, their harmonies remain clean, pure and straight-arrow accurate. Instrumentally, they play their butts off."
Andy Garrigue, Richmond News Leader
"A stock of well wrought original compositions makes for a sound that is inspired by the past, but not stuck in it."
Michael Tisserand, The New Orleans Gambit
"These guys are one of the least recognized but most entertaining of the out-of-towners on the Star Bar circuit. Not really country, not really swing, not really retro, but some strange conglomeration of all the things I like. If you haven't seen them, you are missing a fun show."
James Kelly, Atlanta Creative Loafing
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