As frontman of acoustic collective Graber Gryass, Michael Graber fashions a vast and eclectic background into an immersive journey into an original expansive, exploratory song catalogue. The first record of two, Late Bloom, reads with straight-arrow storytelling, but carries a remarkable importance about the human experience.
“This album really is symbolic of my whole existence. I like to think it’s a message for other people, too,” he says. “You look at a lot of the great novelists. They don’t publish their first novel until their 40s or 50s. This is the first record of all originals under my name. I just turned 50. It’s a real celebration of flourishing.”
Even more, Late Bloom exudes some of the most exemplary songwriting and musicianship you’ll hear all year. That is in large part to the smorgasbord of players and their collective expertise. You’ll find musicians who have played in Public Enemy, Rumpke Mountain Boys, Devil Train, and Dagnabbits, among others. Graber himself has contributed to recordings for Bluff City Backsliders, the Grifters, Foy Vance (“To Memphis”), and currently plays in the Bluff City Backsliders, Zeke’s Three Generation Jug Rascals, and Damfool, and boasts previous work with Professor Elixir’s Southern Troubadours, Fatback Jubilee, and 611.
Glide is thrilled to premiere the original vintage echoing “Devil’s Got Your Name” (below) that serves as a slice of “country surrealism as a day-drinking melodrama, filled with despair,” as Graber puts it. With its acoustic instruments and country-western overtones, the track makes like a Workingman’s Dead or Basement Tapes outtake, serving a clever place in the folk-based roots catalog.
“A man walks into a bar …orders a drink. The guy he demonizes, the one who stole his wife is sitting there, torn up. The Devil has been dumped, too, by the same woman,” says Graber. “They notice they have the same tattoo of the same girl in the same place on their bodies. Then, their Ex enters the bar with the Divorce Lawyer on her arm. Country surrealism as a day-drinking melodrama, filled with despair. This tune was originally written for Professor Elixir’s Southern Troubadours, but never played or recorded. PEST alumni, Brian Collins, joins the band for high harmony singing and 12-string sweeps.”
“This album really is symbolic of my whole existence. I like to think it’s a message for other people, too,” notes Graber. “You look at a lot of the great novelists. They don’t publish their first novel until their 40s or 50s. This is the first record of all originals under my name. I just turned 50. It’s a real celebration of flourishing.”
