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Jack Gray Biograhpy: |
| “I’m
bringin all my boxcars comin to be with you again. And i intend to take all that is rightfully mine. I drive the Norfolk-Pacific into an evening gale guided by the National trust”. Spend some time listening to lyrics like these or watch Jack Gray play one of the many instruments in his bag of tricks and you will begin to realize he is truly a multidimensional man. A master troubadour, Gray has the ability to write and perform his way through time. His music works on many levels and, like the jongleurs of old, he can juggle past, present and future before your very ears. A gifted songwriter with hundreds of original songs to his credit, he's also a talented producer and performance artist. You know my rags are glad, they sew themselves anew As the seams are pulled apart and the thread is bustin thru. It's true, to do this old soft shoe The toll of Halisbury is a quilt made of rags for you. In his time-traveling ragbag of tricks you'll find Gray's talents as a singer, guitarist and keyboard player. A true showman, he also plays mountain dulcimer, harmonica, banjo and mandolin. Born an April Fool's baby in 1960 in Norfolk, Virginia, Gray began blending time and music from an early age. His first memory of music was that epic moment when the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan in 1964. "I thought aliens had landed and given to me music," Gray says. From that point, he was bound by melody and music, growing up in a family where his brothers, father and mother, grandmother, cousins, aunts and uncles and their cats and dogs sang. He cites as his musical influences "everything that made a noise in the woods from the Big Bang on and beyond. Gray has been playing music for more than 30 years, always trying to capture in time that elusive melody that is so much a part of his stylings. Haunting marionettes we are in time. Taunted by the tether and the line." His time capsule of influence? Everything from Buddy Holly to jazz, rock and the psychedelic music of the 60s, 70’s and the family influence of a grandmother who was a songwriter and singer in the 1940’s and 50’s. A spirit raised in the mountains of Tennessee who knows he is most of all a citizen of the universe, Gray considers his greatest accomplishment "being able to continue developing my craft as a writer." The magic of St. Croix was cast into the dark and it maneuvered him in place to jockey for the heart of the shadow and the things to come from the shadow He has been a member of bands such as The Visionairs, Psycho Bible, Gush and the Murdles. He’s shared the stage with artists such as, Gloria Estafan, B.B. King, Widespread Panic, Hank and the Storm Orphans, to name a few. He now lives and writes in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he bases Leadfeather Music, a small publishing company, and Audio Quill, a production company while planning his next travels into the new millennium.
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