Concerts in the Park 8/07: Gumbo Groove

Description

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Gumbo Groove



Why Folk-Fueled Fungrass? One of the toughest thing for artists who dabble in varieties of genres is labeling what comes off the stage when they play. In the case of this collective, driven by the songwriting of Frank Sprouse, it became a bit more easy with a switch to traditional instruments- acoustic guitar, standup bass, mandolin, and banjo. Sprouse's compositional journey includes years of time in various musical woodsheds- from rock to jazz to country to fusion- as well as countless concert hours spent at Grateful Dead shows.

This cross pollination means that a tune might veer from a David Grisman-like riff into a Steely Dan-like jam, with a stop at Terrapin station along the way. A switch some years back to playing and performing exclusively on acoustic guitar, which included long stretches of work on flatpicking chops, brought him around to imagining his music played through a bluegrass filter. The next step was finding the right players to explore in this new environment. The resulting amalgam is fresh and friendly- the name Fungrass came easily to mind- and the good time Gumbo Groove has playing it is fueled by the folks who come to listen and dance: Folk-Fueled Fungrass, y'all!