Their name should have already alerted you to the fact that this is a band that knows its music history – and who wouldn’t want to name themselves after a song by Leonard Cohen? The fact that the core members have a little history themselves should also alert you to expect quality in the CD that accompanies this press release – and why not?
Singer/songwriter Wayne Gillespie has been making quality music in Australia since CBS released his second album New Locations here back in 1987, and was already a favourite son back in his native New Zealand for a few years before that, while drummer/percussionist Rob Grosser has fired the engine room of more than a few records since he emerged from Adelaide, having worked with some of Australia’s best musicians including the late Pete Wells of Rose Tattoo, Jimmy Barnes, Tim Gaze , Bob Daisley (Ozzy Osbourne/Gary Moore) as well as overseas artists such as Bob Margolin (ex- Muddy Waters), and Deep Purple ‘s Jon Lord, Ian Gillian and Steve Morse.
So, how did they become Famous Blue Raincoat? Like all good things, it started with the end of another band. Back in ’95, Wayne and Rob were playing together in a three-piece called Passionfish, releasing an EP,
Love Comes Down andpromoting Gillespie’s third album Living in Exile. When the bass player moved on, the musical chemistry suggested Wayne and Rob stay in touch. They started jamming a couple of days a week, recording what came up and seeing where it would lead. It was a new way of writing for Wayne, accustomed to being the solo acoustic singer/songwriter with folk-rock roots, yet strapping on an electric guitar and playing along to the grooves Rob laid down made perfect sense.
Life inevitably got in the way, relationships blossomed, children arrived, as did new career for Gillespie as an Entertainment Psychologist. Next thing you know years had passed. However the jam tracks were still there, honed into real songs by Wayne and enhanced with the help of a few friends who were called in, like sax player Ric Robertson (dig/eon/Baecastuff), with whom Gillespie had played back in New Zealand, as he had American guitarist now Zealander Nigel Gavin, who’d played in Robert Fripp’s League Of Crafty Guitarists, while bass player Goby Catt, now living in Vancouver, Canada, was a pal from the Slide McBride Band, and another Kiwi (whose credits include Van Morrison, Sting and Ray Charles) Brendan Power on harmonica.
So the album FRAZZ concoction of Folk/Rock/Jazz- Tracks with traces of Rock-edge, spiced with cheeky surrealism, Jazz juices, Folk reverence, African flavours, Hypnotic Grooves and Dark Tales.
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