DARRELL GRANT: ARTIST BIO darrellgrant.ca For seven years, Darrell Grant was the singer / songwriter / guitarist behind the exciting New Brunswick contemporary folk trio, MODABO. Known in the 1990’s for their powerful live performances, heartfelt songs, and a quirky sense of fun, the lads were twice nominated in the East Coast Music Award Category, Group of the Year. Their enduring selt-titled debut cd (produced by Garnet Rogers, penned by Grant) was nominated for an ECMA Album of the Year. After several cross-Canada tours, and one more acclaimed cd - produced in part by fiddler extraordinaire, Oliver Schroer - MODABO disbanded in 1999. Since then, Darrell’s been working away, creating and recording music at his project studio. Here, he's built a large catalog songs, instrumentals, and experimental soundscapes. His craftsmanship and lyric sense of music lure the listener into the simplicity of the acoustic guitar, and then into colourful splashes of electric and virtual guitar technology. Intricate finger-picking and percussive right hand techniques sometimes explore alternate tunings and partial capo techniques. Darrell has scored music for a handful of films, documentaries and other AV projects, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with film-makers. He is available for gigs and creative projects of all kinds. Another instrumental cd is nearly ready to go, and a second solo album of original material is close to completion. Please take a look and listen to his handiwork as the songwriter for the Canadian acoustic vocal trio: MODABO. Their enduring music hearkens back to the great sounds of Crosby, Stills & Nash and The Eagles with a wee bit of east coast flare and fun. All his work can now be found on CDBaby, iTunes, facebook and so on. Also check out his debut solo album of songs, "The Heart is Like A Wheel" (2009) A prestigious Creation Grant from NBArts helped get the project completed. It is "a superb debut album," writes Robert Reid of The Kitchener-Waterloo Record. "Listening to Darrell Grant's debut CD ... is much like being reunited with an old, dear friend after years of separation," reflects Laverne Stewart, of The Fredericton Daily Gleaner. Darrell's next cd, "A Musical Garden of Verses," is an altogether special project. Here are 17 poems chosen from Robert Louis Stevenson’s, "A Child's Garden of Verses" and set to melodic, intimate folk-styled music. The album is inspired by Grant's time as a stay-at-home dad, and the witnessing of his own son’s growing love of music and rhyme. It is his best work to date (he always says!). LINER NOTES Hello! In part, this album is an instrumental glimpse into the music I wrote during the MODABO years. Five are guitar only instrumental versions of tunes found originally on the discs, " Modabo" and "The Many And The One." Of extra note, I've included on this cd, "Hold Tight," "While The River's Rolling" and "Lasso The Moon." These are songs a variety of good folks have used at their weddings, and they are songs a number of singers have told me they especially enjoy accompanying. 10 tracks are brand new, with a couple prefiguring the work I ended up doing on my first solo album of songs, "The Heart Is Like A Wheel." You can find that album and MODABO music on CDBaby and iTunes, etc. This intimate cd is good for dinners with friends, leisure times with good company, background work music, quiet reflective times, and, perhaps, a little bit of Modabo karaoke! You can also make up your own words as you go along. Enjoy and thanks for listening! HOMEMADE INSTRUMENTALS: THE MUSICIANS Darrell Grant: 6, 9 &12 string guitars Jon Weaver: acoustic guitar (tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 13, 14 & 15); tambourine (track 6) Mike Doherty: hand-drum (track 6) Tom Easley: bass (track 6) Recorded at The Digital Pitchfork, New Brunswick, Canada. Tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 13, 14 & 15 recorded with Jon Weaver. All tracks composed by Darrell Grant. ℗ & © 2000. All rights reserved. SOCAN. THANK-YOU Jon Weaver, for every little thing: your excellent guitar work, for all your recording help & advice, for computer know-how, for everything from tambourine jangling to hammer swinging out at the farm. This one's for you, Buddy! TUNING INFORMATION 1 Valentine: tuning: DGDDAD. 2 Sandcastles: tuning: CFDGAD, then partial capo at the 5th fret leaving the low 6th & 5th strings open. 3 Revel in Life: tuning: DADGAD, then partial capo at the 7th fret leaving the low 6th string open. Jon’s 2nd Guitar: DBDF#AD (nashville strIngs). 4 Stop: tuning: EADGBD, capo at the 2nd fret. 5 High Time: tuning: EADGBE, capo at the 9th fret. Jon’s 2nd guitar: DADGBE, capo at the 2nd fret. 6 Pale Blue Guitar: tuning: EADGBE, then partial capo at the 2nd fret leaving the high 1st & 2nd strings open. Jon’s 2nd guitar: EADGAE, capo at the 7th fret. 7 In a Box Buried Deep: tuning: DADGBE, then partial capo at the 2nd fret leaving the high 1st & 2nd strings open. 8 The Hunter: tuning: DADEAD, then partial capo at the 2nd fret leaving the high 1st & 2nd strings open. 9 Mr. Butterfield: tuning: DGDDAD. 10 Simon James: tuning: EBEGBE, 11 When Sleep Comes to the Eye: tuning: DDDGBD, then partial capo at the 5th fret leaving the low 6th & 5th strings open. 12 The Hour I First Believed: tuning: DADGAD, capo at the 3rd fret. 13 Hold Tight: tuning: DGDGBD. Jon’s 2nd guitar: DADGAD, capo the the 5th fret. 14 While the River’s Rolling: tuning: DADF#AD, Jon’s 2nd guitar: DGDGBD, capo at the 7th fret. 15 Lasso the Moon: tuning: DADGAD, capo at the 5th fret. Jon’s 2nd guitar: DGDGBD. A partial capo effect is created by using a capo capable of barring only some of the strings (I use a keyser as well as a 3rd hand capo). Nashville tuning is standard tuning achieved with 6 unwound strings - 3 high E strings, 3 B strings - giving the guitar the effect of a harp. All tunings listed are from low string to high string. Enjoy! WHAT SOME HAVE BEEN SAYING about Darrell's songwriting over the years... "Simply stated, Grant is emerging as one of Canada's most impressive songwriters. Although literate in an effortlessly sophisticated was, his lyrics are broadly accessible... It is a tribute to both Miramichi artists to compare Grant to novelist David Adams Richards in the way they both express universal truths through particular experiences of ordinary people." (Robert Reid, "The Kitchener-Waterloo Record") "The soft-spoken singer brings to songwriting the kind of solitary grandeur that the film "A River Runs Through It" lent to fly-fishing." (Tim Arsenault, "Words & Music, Society of Canadian Authors and Composers") "...a very clever tunesmith ... the kind that fires up the adrenalin." (R.P.M. Magazine) For more information about me or MODABO, please visit my website (darrellgrant.ca) and find me (or MODABO) on facebook. Cheers! Darrell Grant