On Saturday, January 14th, at Gypsy Music Café, local band Pickled Okra will perform, with The Weavils, and distribute copies of their new CD – Sounds Like Chicken, free with purchase of admission ($12 advance/$15 door.) Seating will start at 7p.
“We want it to be a party for our friends,” explained Todd Gray, who leads Pickled Okra with his wife, Paisley Gray. “We think of [the Gypsy] as our living room,” he said. What better way to celebrate the second CD by this ‘untraditional bluegrass’ band than with a party that also kicks-off their West Coast tour (in February.)
An Original Album By An Original Band
Pickled Okra actually recorded a first album a few years ago, the Grays explained, but it started as a demo, with Todd Gray on mandolin, Paisley Gray on bass and Tony Markey on banjo, performing covers of known songs.
On Sounds Like Chicken (recorded in Fremont at Mad Pants Productions,) the band will release 12 original works – each written by members of the band. Paisley Gray contributed a few of the songs, but she applauded the major contributions by her husband. “Todd’s a really awesome song-writer,” she praised, and he wrote most of them while he worked, at sea, for three months in early 2011 as a Department of Fisheries observer. “Next time we need to write an album,” he said, “I’ll go out again.”
The album also contains songs written by Markey, including a song, Blood Moon, from a previous album he recorded called Music For the Zombie Apocalypse, by Banjopocalypse, now performed by Pickled Okra.
Pickled Okra does have its own sound, and the band selects songs to perform that have lyrics worth hearing. “One thing we really like about the Pickled Okra sound,” explained Paisley Gray, “is that it has a lot of white space.” The mandolin and banjo provide high range sounds, and the bass plays low which, “leaves a lot of space for our vocals,” she said.
Pickled Okra performs often – and everywhere, including farmer’s markets, local pubs, theaters, concert halls, private parties, festivals, corporate gigs, and twice at the Fremont First Friday Art Walk in 2011 (one of those being a ‘Live At Lenin’.) They also busker, whenever they find an audience, and plan to do more of that while out on tour this February for shows in Vegas, San Francisco and Santa Monica. With Paisley Gray recently laid-off from her job, she has thrown herself full-time into the band, and she only plans to look for another job, she observed, “if and when necessary, because this is what we really love doing.”
Markey will perform with the band on January 14th, but he still holds down a job – and insists on spending time with his family – so he will miss the tour some shows. So, last year, the Grays were grateful to get back-up at several shows by veteran Appalachian bluegrassers, Gary Read (mandolin and guitar) and Alyse Read (banjo.)
From A Mutual Love Of Music
The band started as a ‘living room pass-time’, as the Grays described it. They met 10 years ago, and share a mutual love of hiking, skiing and playing music. A professional musician, Todd Gray performs as a drummer in several bands but it was only after his marriage to Paisley, 6 ½ years ago, that he encountered the mandolin.
Paisley Gray has created a legend about how she put a mandolin in Todd’s hands and said, ‘you will play this, and you will like it!’ Todd agreed with the story, but added that when he first picked up a mandolin, at a family gathering in Paisley’s home state of Montana, he instantly took to it. Shortly after that, around 2006, she bought him one. “It would never have happened if it weren’t for her,” he agreed.
In 2007, the Grays met Markey, and “when Tony and Todd start jamming,” Paisley Gray observed, “it’s a beautiful thing!” The two complement each other, and, “we all love Bluegrass,” Paisley said.
“But we all come from non-bluegrass backgrounds,” Todd Gray explained, with Markey from Alaska and Todd originally from Maine. All three also bring a variety of influences. “Musically, Tony comes from 80s Pop/Rock. I come from Pink Floyd, Reggae, Funk,” Todd said, while Paisley has listened to Punk Rock and the Grateful Dead, “and my Dad had a country music radio station,” she said of her childhood.
“I never knew anything about Bluegrass until I met Paisley,” Todd admitted, and the band doesn’t play true, conventional bluegrass. “We’re half comedy troupe, half band,” he explained, with songs and stories about ideas like love, murder, the limbo of joblessness and the mischief of young love. The first Pickled Okra album highlighted the band’s bluegrass sound, while this one showcases bluegrass mixed with other influences, imbued with an indie-pop feel. “Actually, we can make Pink Floyd and Bluegrass go together,” Todd Gray admitted.
Curious? Listen to Pickled Okra on their website, or attend the show on January 14th, at the Gypsy Café, and receive a copy of the album to take home and enjoy over and over. Tickets can be purchased on Brown Paper Tickets, for $12 (18 years old and younger get in free,) or at the door for $15.
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