"Man on a Wire, the smart six-song debut from Carrboro sextet Grand Shell Game, starts from a bedrock of jangling roots rock and ponderous poetry. The songs then spin outward, taking cues from The Beatles or Lambchop, Neutral Milk Hotel or Ween in turn. Though all interesting, some of these tunes are breathless, fetching, and wild, while others turn inward for abiding reflection. Think Bombadil operating beneath a veneer of cool, The Head & The Heart with less to lose, or one of the year’s most promising local starts." Grayson Haver Currin - Indy Week - June 2016 The Grand Shell Game brings to mind bands like They Might Be Giants, The Mountain Goats or Dr. Dog, with their literate, unaffected vocals, and almost manic eclecticism." John Adamian - YES! Weekly June 2016 "Floydfest "On the Rise" alum the grand shell game kicks a**... a truly authentic brand of Americana rock n' roll." Kris Hodges - Producer of Floydfest - September 2015 "Recalling Harvest-era Neil Young, the grand shell game have tapped into the magic formula for fusing country with folk. A true gem of a song to be sure" Leks Malby - Aside/Beside music blog review of "to the stars and back" - June 2016 "They won the hearts of many with their dead-earnest Southern lit-fueled Americana... Clearly these boys love to play." Chronogram Magazine (Hudson Valley, NY) - April 2015 "Cosmic-leaning roots rock that lets loose with limber extemporizations" Patrick Wall - Indy Week - June 2015 the grand shell game is set to release their bold debut album man on a wire on June 11th, 2016. Recorded at the renowned Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT (Interpol, The Head and the Heart, The National), the work springs from foundations laid by songwriter e-s guthrie (guitar and vocals, former co-founder of The New Familiars) and is fully realized with some of the best musicians to be found in central North Carolina: daniel fields - electric guitar (Rebekah Todd & The Odyssey, The Oblations), dylan turner - bass/vocals (Bevel Summers, Speak of the Horse), joe macphail - keyboards (Rebekah Todd & The Odyssey, The Oblations), rob davis - drums/percussion/vocals (Dispatch, Des Ark), and rob diMauro - drums/percussion/vocals (Luego, Run of the Mill). produced by the band along with engineer/mixer Greg Giorgio, the album represents a break-out work for both parties. longtime assistant to Tarquin founder and chief Peter Katis, Giorgio takes over the studio and shows his chops by capturing the raw talent and sound of the band while delivering a polished and expansive mix. beginning with the title track inspired by the novel Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (in turn partly inspired by Philippe Petit’s famous 1974 tightrope walk), the album poses a series of questions and perspectives via six songs, all within a shifting landscape of styles and sonic colors. though individually quite different from each other, the pieces are artfully stitched together by the distinctive voices of guthrie, turner, davis and dimauro. catchy and fun while also challenging and unique, it is the work of a band revealing it’s own highly stylized point of view.