Gillian Grassie

Brotherly Love in the City of Lights

// September 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Music, Performances, Travel

I managed to squeeze in a show here before I leave for Berlin – and it’s got an ALL PHILLY line-up! Jim Boggia and Zach Djanikian will be joining me for an evening of music in the Latin Quarter (6eme).

If you’re free Tuesday night and in the city of lights, drop by the Tennessee Jazz Bar around 9 PM. I’m hoping to finish some new material over the weekend and test-drive some songs!

Details here and on the Shows page:

September 29th: Paris, France
Tennessee Jazz Club
12 Rue André Mazet
75006 Paris
9 PM (21h)

I’ll miss this town for many reasons, including the fact that THIS happens twice a week:

pari_roller

What you’re watching are several thousand Parisian rollerbladers taking over the streets of Paris Friday night. It’d kind of like that bicycle takeover in Philly, only these guys get an official police escort to help divert traffic – twice a week! If you ever plan on visiting Paris with your rollerblades, visit Pari-Roller.com for the scoop. Suggested listening: Adrien Reju’s rendition of “Brand New Key” from her album A Million Hearts.

XPN Fest ‘09 highlights

// August 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Music, Performances

It happened a while ago, I know, but I was so thrilled to be a part of this year’s XPoNential Music Festival that I just wanted to post a quick, belated note about the experience. In my defense, I played the festival Sunday, packed like mad on Monday, and hopped on a plane for France Tuesday morning. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind ever since then getting settled abroad, but before I tell you my stories of Paris and Lorient and Normandy, I wanted to share some of my personal highlights from the Festival.

audience view of the Marina Stage

First off, the band sounded just fantastic and I was so proud to be sharing the stage with such fine musicians. Ross Bellenoit, Matt Scarano, Ryan Kuhns and I have been working together as a quartet for nearly a year now and I was very sorry to have to leave my Idling Ferraris behind, but very proud of how far we’ve come as a group. I sorely miss their support and creativity when I play over here, but am excited to come back with a bunch of new songs to throw at them when I get back!

There was some exceptional, above-and-beyond fan lovin’ that took place at the festival. Francesca and Erika had me do sharpie body-art (see photo documentation). Special thanks also goes out to Adam, Dorothy, and Elliot – the cool kids from Lancaster who chatted a while and made me feel like a million bucks.

Erika getting inked!

I was just delighted that my longtime harp teacher and dear friend, Janet Witman, was able to make my last State-side performance, and was tickled later to see someone tweeted about the shout-out moment.

There are some more pictures up on my flickr account if you’re interested, and Bekah Larson also wrote a very nice review of the performance for the XPN All About the Music Blog, which you should check out here.

Thanks to everyone who came out and tuned in to share this very special afternoon with me!

Set List: July 26th, Wiggins Park, Camden Waterfront, NJ
Pulse
Silken String
Summer
The Canonization of Margot Price
No Answer
The Mark
August

Frencesca

XPoNential Music Festival 2009

// June 25th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // News, Performances

My last performance before I head abroad for my grand Watson adventure will be at the XPoNential Music Festival on Sunday, July 26th. I’ll have my full band with me and the festival’s line-up includes Aimee Mann, Guster, Yeasayer, Peter Bjorn and John, The Annuals, The Low Anthem, Matt Duke, Shemekia Copeland, Sharon Little, The Hold Steady, John Gorka, and many, many more. You can see the complete line-up and buy tickets (single day or weekend passes) online. The performance will also be broadcast live on XPN’s radio frequencies and on www.xpn.org.

In an effort to become more technologically tuned-in, I’ve also finally joined the Twitter bandwagon. If you’d like to follow me, just go to www.twitter.com/gilliangrassie.