THE GRAVEL PROJECT – SINGLES REVIEW
The Gravel Project is an outstanding Boston ensemble that delivers some rocking blues and funk. The band is the brainchild of guitarist, composer, and singer Andrew Gravel and brother, Hammond B3 organist and composer, Jordan Gravel. The current lineup includes Dave Fox on drums and Brandon Mayes on percussion and vocals. The Gravel Project released their second full length album, Wishful Thinking, in 2017 and a ferocious live recording, Live at Village Fest, in 2018.
Recently, The Gravel Project have released several singles in anticipation of a new album release in 2021. The first single released earlier this year was the latin infused funky “Facts and Fiction”. Andrew’s vocals are spot on and Jordan’s keyboards are powerful and compelling. The driving guitar solo is pure electric dynamite. The entire tune has a commanding cadence that flows like a speeding freight train. The lyrics are very poignant. They channel the media, political discontent and divisive misinformation that is currently the norm.
The Gravel Project ‘s newest single, “Big Deep Blue”, is a bluesy romp with an intoxicating beat. Andrews’s vocals are again perfectly matched to the essence of the song. The musicianship is exceptional with waves of soulful rhythms cascading through the air. The funky guitar and dynamic rippling keyboards are definitely highlights. Fox’s drums and Mayes’ percussion drop a solid backbeat. Love lost takes center stage but heartache has never sounded so good.
If these two songs are any indication of The Gravel Project‘s new record, they’re going to hit a home run.
Andrew Gravel was kind enough to answer a few questions about the band.
AMP: Andrew, how about giving the readers a brief history of the band.
ANDREW: The roots of the band really date back to 2010 when I recorded a few original songs and released a low budget EP for the sole purpose of using it to book my own gigs. I didn’t have a consistent band back then. The lineup was essentially a rotating cast of various killer players at each gig. I was lucky to have an incredible call list of some of the best musicians in Boston. Basically, everyone did their homework and learned the tunes from the EP then showed up and played the show. Honestly, it felt more like the Andrew Gravel band back then even though I never wanted it to be just about me. I always wanted more of a collective band concept but I didn’t have the right pieces in place yet. My brother Jordan lived in South Carolina back then and I always wished he’d move to Boston and join the band. We played a ton of music growing up as kids and had an incredible brotherly musical connection and I was eager to explore that as adults. But he was doing his thing down south and for those years it was a rotating lineup for The Gravel Project. I ended up recording an album called The Gravel Project in 2014 which involved a number of amazing Boston musicians as the backing band. It featured songs that were staples of the early repertoire. The major turning point was in 2015 when my family and I convinced Jordan to move back to Boston. To me, that’s when it felt like the band had a rebirth and really took on a new identity. By then, Dave Fox had taken over as our go to drummer and Brandon Mayes was playing percussion with us. I really loved having both drums and percussion in the group. Jordan eventually joined the band and we instantly felt we had great chemistry together. Wishful Thinking was released in 2017 which was our first album with the new lineup. It featured 10 original songs and a fresh new sound. It showcased a Hammond B3 organ instead of a bass guitar and had more of a rock vibe. We were playing a lot of shows back then and released Live at Village Fest in 2018 to capture the energy of our live performances. It was a great period of time for the band that seemed to be getting better and better. Then 2020 hit and it completely uprooted the life we knew as musicians. Anyways, although a lot of people were familiar with The Gravel Project dating back to 2010, the current version was really born in 2015.
AMP: Where does the band draw its inspiration from?
ANDREW: This is a tough question to answer concisely as I can talk all day about my favorite music. Both as individual players and as a band, we definitely draw our inspiration from many different artists and genres of music. As a kid, I grew up listening to Beatles records non stop. Then the Seattle 90’s scene blew my mind and became an important part of my musical identity. Pearl Jam will always be huge for me. Also some of the best music was written in the 70’s. Bands such as The Allman Brothers, Hendrix, Santana and The Dead created an American pop culture renaissance. I can’t imagine how music could ever be more influential on art and culture than it was in the 70’s. One of my favorite albums of all time is Derek and the Dominoes. Clapton really inspired my approach to the guitar and songwriting. There’s a lot of newer bands that also provide immense amounts of inspiration, too. I look at the Tedeschi Trucks Band as 70’s torchbearers carrying the music into the future and Derek and Susan will always be two of my favorite musicians. But I also listen to a lot of Black Keys, Grizzly Bear, White Denim and Ghosts of Jupiter just to name a few. All of those (and many more) bands have expanded our ears and imaginations. Everyone in the band loves jazz and has spent years in the woodshed learning the tradition of jazz and fusion on our respective instruments. Although we a clearly a rock band, we have a ton of jazz and fusion influences that shapes the way we listen and improve.
AMP: Give us a little insight into the songwriting process.
ANDREW: The songwriting process has really grown to be more collaborative than it has ever been, which I love. In the past I wrote almost all the material but lately the process has changed. Now I bring a new song to band rehearsal and everyone then develops and writes their own parts. Jordan has also brought some cool tunes to the band which has provided a nice variation to the writing. I’ve co-written a handful of new songs with my wife Leslie who happens to be a great lyricist. “Wistful Thinking”, “Long Lost” and “Big Deep Blue” were all songs that have lyrics penned by Leslie while I wrote the music. We’ve also worked with my cousin Jeff Blaney, a great musician and songwriter, who spent 10 years in Nashville. We’ve been playing one of his songs, “Saving Up My Love”, for awhile and recently recorded it at Q Division Studios in Somerville. I think the more collaborative writing style has made the music richer and more interesting.
AMP: What does the future look like for The Gravel Project?
ANDREW: Well, unfortunately the future is quite uncertain for all of us musicians right now. The live experience is so limited due to Covid especially as we move into the winter months. We went from playing over a 100 gigs a year in 2019 to having our calendar pretty much decimated in 2020. Sadly, I’m not anticipating 2021 to be a whole lot better. In the meantime we’ve been putting more effort into maintaining and growing our online presence .The silver lining of 2020 is that we’ve had much more time to work on writing and recording and we have a bunch of new songs that I am really happy about. Originally our plan was to release a new album in 2020 but we pumped the brakes a bit. We decided to first drop a handful of singles and maybe release an album in 2021. “Facts and Fiction” and “Big Deep Blue” are the latest tracks we released and there will be more coming. The best way to hear our music is to follow us on Bandcamp, YouTube and Spotify.
I would like to thank Andrew for his answers and time. Please give The Gravel Project a listen. The band just oozes great music.
To learn more about The Gravel Project, check out their website
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