Edward Groves

From a small town in the heart of Michigan, Edward - as one fan put it, "writes songs about cats and gardening and leaving home". He also writes about bar fights, John Lennon, hope, trees, ballerinas, love, and loss.

For more than twenty years Edward has been quietly and privately writing acoustic based songs that span and combine all types of music with the threads of observation, experience, and imagination running through them. If a story is involved, it is cleanly articulated by a songwriter who knows and enjoys songwriting.

Audiences often leave Edward's performances feeling that they have connected with this natural songwriter and with each other. Maybe they've even heard some truth.

"There was always music around the house," says Edward who, at age ten, started playing his father's electric guitar as it lay on the kitchen table. "I really grew up as a drummer and began my university education as a music major playing drums. My father always wanted me to play the guitar. Later, after I left the music department, I started writing songs with an old beat-up out of tune acoustic guitar he gave me. I never stopped. So, I guess he got his wish."

Edward currently lives in a small town in Michigan with Heidi and a house full of cats.

 

I am happy to say that I perform with the amazin’ Keith Axtell on guitar.

Keith and I began rehearsing in December 2004 and since then it has been nothing but exciting. Not only can he fly on the guitar but he is constantly at work to make what he is playing weave with the music. I consider myself a thinking man, and he is a think man’s guitarist.

He has pursued guitar seriously from the age of eight and began teaching guitar at 14 while continuing his own lessons. After high school he traveled to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music where he studied jazz and classical guitar. I can only assume he had a wild time there. Berklee is known for phenomenal instructors and his shared passion with the other students there must have made for an energy-filled environment.

When he returned to the Lansing area, he continued his investigation of the guitar by studying with two of the top instructors from Michigan State University’s School of Music.

Like me, Keith surveyed the financial landscape as it related to music. Laying down his guitar(s), he completed his education as a computer engineer (did I forget to say he’s real smart too?).

In 2001 he re-connected with his passion for music and since then he’s played in various settings, written some of his own pieces, and coordinated open-mic nights for other musicians. This is where I bumped into him. I’m glad I did.

He adds an intelligent emotional intensity to what I’ve written. This is a good union. He's become a good friend.

Keith lives in another small town in Michigan with Nancy.

 

I am happy to say that I perform with Abigail English on harmony vocal.

Abigail English says she has been singing and performing since the womb. Somehow I believe this. She has a wonderfully intuitive voice and a spooky harmonic sensibility. She comes from a "freakishly talented" family ("...like the VonTrapps...minus the lederhosen"). Music is her necessity.

Abigail has great respect and passion for African drumming, is a lover of musicals and has some kind of weird relationship with the music of Stephen Sondheim.

She has been in numerous stage roles, her first at the age of 5, and she can't remember a time when she wasn't in a choral group. She currently sings in the Lange Ensemble, a Lansing area choir.

Lastly, she says she "hangs out mostly with hippies." It is possible that it is this quality that initially drew me to her.

Abigail also lives in a small town in Michigan.

 

I am happy to say that I perform with Chris Wood on Chapman Stick and Guitar.

Chris began his walk down the music path carrying a trombone.

This seems to explain everything.

He soon picked up a guitar and a band. Sometime later he became a bass player. I am not alone in believing that some of the best bass players are also guitarists and that some of the best guitarists are also bass players. I do not know how the keyboards that he also plays fit in to all of this.

Some twenty years ago he picked up a Chapman Stick. The Stick (named after its inventor) is a somewhat odd looking instrument (because it does in fact look like a stick with guitar strings on it) that is played by tapping the strings instead of strumming or plucking. It has a very wide range, but Chris mostly plays it in a bass style.

So, as I said, twenty years ago he picked up the Stick. He then put it down. Most people do because, not only do you need a very high level of musical knowledge to play the Stick, you also have to be a little courageous. Being slightly off-kilter also helps.

In the summer of 2006 I heard a rumor of a guitar/bass/keyboard player who also played the Stick. Oh yeah! So, with some encouragement, Chris became our Stick player. His wonderful percussive and melodic sounds add a mysterious depth to the band.

Welcome to the mad scientist of the group.

Chris lives is yet another small town in Michigan with Kim.