Grant Glad – One Man’s Story
One Man’s Story was produced by Grant Glad and Tony Williameetts; recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered by Tony Williamette at Minnehaha Recording Company. Sometimes a high quality album just falls into your lap out of the clear blue sky, and that is definitely the case here. Launching the New Year with its release on January 1, this one really should be in constant rotation – it’ll grow on you immediately.
“Gunpowder at Dawn” is a chronicling of being a a deer hunt camp at dawn, at only 13 “wet behind the ears, gonna become a man, ’cause this ain’t no place for a child I’ve been told.” Featuring Ryan David Young of Trampled By Turtles on violin, this song sketches out the trappings of a being at a hunt camp with cigarettes on the floor and the grownups seeming to have had a bit too much to drink, the adults laughing at things the child doesn’t know. Trying coffee, and the whole adventure of a boy wanting to fit in with the men.
Cool harmonies by Laura Bur are quite remarkable, they sound just like the girl next door on “When It’s Gonna End.” This is just masterful songwriting. Two characters in relationship and slightly out of step, one thinking all manner of jumbled up thoughts and the other trailing behind asking what he’s thinking. “I took what they wouldn’t miss from the back of that liquor cabinet” “What do you want to be when you grow up”. “I don’t want to grow old.” “They never tell us when it’s gonna end.” This is incredibly moving.
“At Ease” is next as it outlines kids returning from boot camp: “how can someone change so much. maybe they didn’t maybe the only thing that changed was me” and “I curse that damn recruiters name.” This complex song delicately handles the practice of recruiting young folks, too often from economically depressed rural areas, and the changes they undergo, while their friends back home change as well along their different pathways. The march cadence on this song is courtesy of Jon Attia and Matthew Dumas. A worthy song.
“On the Ropes” is acoustic loping, and standing there in the checkout line hoping his card will go through just one more time – thinking about CEOs and rich folks and the desperation of falling through the cracks and trying to make it. “I done my best to make my old man proud.”
“Gettin’ on Fine” is Sarah Morris on lead vocals in duet with Grant, and it’s quite lovely and moving. “By the time I reach my destination I am clean again – the debris of the day blown away, you don’t ask and I don’t say. We been gettin’ on fine for years this way.” Powerful with tension buoyed by the violin.
“Dancing at the VFW” is another one with Sarah Morris on board with a vocals late in the song, and it’s an older couple dancing and reminiscing “every Friday, I save for you and we go dancing at the VFW… two-stepping to a Hank Williams tune.” Mournful violin, strummed acoustic guitar, and “everything will be all right at least one night a week… maybe one night is all you really need.” And then “everyone said that you’d be forever young when they saw you cut a rug… we can’t stop getting old.” Go get the tissues, this is a tearjerker. And the songs keep coming on strong all through the record.
This is good Americana music – for the around the winter fireplace while the snow’s falling or on the front porch in spring or fall, or around the summer campfire. Just really quality songwriting and lyrical storytelling and solid musicianship all year long.
Musicians on One Man’s Story are Grant Glad on acoustic guitar and vocals; Liz Draper (Charlie Parr) on upright bass; Jillian Rae on violin; and Hunter Hawthorne on keys. Additional musicians are Ryan David Young (Trampled by Turtles) on violin on “Gunpowder at Dawn”; Matthew Fox on lead guitar on “At Ease”; Robin Hatterschide on percussion on “At Ease” and Jon attic and Matthew Dumas on march cadence on “At Ease”; Julian Edoff on harmonica on “On the Ropes”; Laurel Bur on vocals on “When It’s Gonna End” and “The Night Before Thanksgiving”; and Sarah Morris on vocals on “Gettin’ on Fine” and “Dancing at the VFW.”
Album artwork was courtesy of Jake Manders.
Find more detail and information in his website, here: https://grantgladmusic.com