The Gracious Few articles Options

[livefan1999]

The Gracious Few singer Kevin Martin discusses songwriting and band's debut album

Monday, September 27, 2010
By Tiffany Bentley
The Express-Times

The Gracious Few, the new supergroup made up of Live members Chad Taylor, Chad Gracey and Patrick Dahlheimer and Candlebox members Sean Hennessy and Kevin Martin, are just that, gracious. The band was not formed out of spite for their original projects, but for a need to produce the music they had been yearning to craft.

Able to expand on the issues they felt were important, beyond any former musical constraints, the group released their self-titled debut album Sept. 14. The first single, "Honest Man," was inspired by frontman Kevin Martin's experiences with migrating from Los Angeles to Pennsylvania to work with the guys from Live. "I've been so influenced by the blue-collar work ethic of York and Lancaster. (It had) an influence on my ideals as a human being," he says. "People start a job at 18 and finish at the same company. You just don't get that in California or on the West Coast. It was a change of direction."

The band plays Oct. 1 at Philadelphia's Theatre of the Living Arts and Oct. 30 at Lancaster's Chameleon Club.

Fans shouldn't expect the band performing a Live or Candlebox song at the shows. The sound is harder on "The Gracious Few" than the members' other works, with threads of classic rock woven with twinges of punk and blues influences. "It's a record of politics and opinions," Martin says of the album. "It's an album full of all sorts of emotional ties."

Working with producer and former Talking Heads keyboardist/guitarist Jerry Harrison brought a unique flavor to their sound and to the recording, Martin says. "That humility, patience, respect, musicianship, Jerry brought it," Martin says.

The music follows suit with Martin's brutal honesty, Martin's lyrics complemented by complex guitar riffs. But Martin isn't the only one writing the lyrics. "I didn't want to be responsible for all the lyrics, and the credit of it," he says of the band's joint writing efforts.

Martin says while Candlebox is still intact, the creative process with The Gracious Few was more seamless. "It's easy to joke, easy to get serious," he says. "It's music I respect. That was something I had been looking for a long time."

While there has been a public, careful handling of copyright issues between the Live members and their former lead singer, Ed Kowalczyk, Martin says The Gracious Few's songs emote a "sense of betrayal, of love and loss." He says members of Live worked through a rough time when "they had lost their identity to Ed's solo career."

But now, all may have found solace in The Gracious Few. "The guys were looking to do something they wanted, something they were missing," Martin says.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/entertainm...3760.xml&coll=3

This post has been edited by livefan1999: Oct 4 2010, 12:25 pm

[OutToDry]

As been said above....houw you can not fall in love with this band??

T3M: Is The Gracious Few a long-term project?

KM: We’re releasing an acoustic EP in February, and then another record will come out next summer

This is even better than another album, 1 1/2 albums!!!!