Biography

“Cary Grace is one of a kind,” said Geoff Barton in his review of her 2015 album Tygerland, for Classic Rock Magazine. An artist of many diverse talents, she is a singer, poet, visual artist, songwriter, composer, recording engineer, producer, musician, computer nerd, and boutique modular synthesizer builder.

Grace was born in South Carolina, moved to Nashville as a child, and lived there for many years, releasing her first album in 2004. In 2005 she relocated to England and made a fresh start, bringing only four guitars, her cat, and a couple of dozen boxes.

Since then, she has been working with various other musicians recording and and writing prolifically, and releasing eight more full-length albums and an EP. [ full discography >> ]

Her first UK album release in 2007 was Where You Go, followed in 2008 by Projections.

2009’s Perpetual Motion, is a double album — heavy on improvisation, but the improvisational aesthetic is blended with Cary’s distinctive songwriting and production techniques. The resulting music is simultaneously free-flowing and structured.

2010 brought a return to more conventional song-forms with the debut self-titled album by Monday Machines (a collaboration with Allan Coberly, backed by Andy Budge and David Payne).

The same year she began producing The Airtight Garage, a music-based programme and podcast (currently on hiatus, but the old episodes are archived on Mixcloud).

Grace balances her creative impulses with business and technical savvy. In 2011 she acquired the exclusive American modular synthesizer brand, Wiard. That followed a lengthy training period during which she learned how to build the hand-made 300 Series modules first-hand, taught by Wiard founder Grant Richter.

During the same time period she released a single recorded in collaboration with Mauve La Biche after adding some Buchla 200 overdubs — a cover of the Amon Düül II classic “Archangel Thunderbird”, and recorded and gigged with Grant Richter’s spacerock band, F/i, in the USA. She now manufactures Wiard Synthesizers in England at Wessex Analogue, while continuing to use all available free time to make music.

Cary has made several appearances on sought-after releases by the cult British vinyl label, Fruits de Mer, covering Pink Floyd, Amon Düül II, and David Bowie. Cary’s versions of “Black Country Rock” and “Sound and Vision”, (as well as Consterdine's version of the latter) appeared on a very special limited edition 8" lathe cut, Friends of the Fish 8, with a third David Bowie cover, “Queen Bitch”, appearing on 2016’s Fruits de Mer Members’ CD compilation A New Career in a New Town. Her latest contribution to a Fruits de Mer release is a reading of Jimi Hendrix’s “1983 ... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be),” featured on the label's Three Seasons LP set. (The Floyd and Bowie tracks have now been re-released on Covers Volume I.)

Grace earned widespread critical acclaim for 2015’s Tygerland. That album was variously called “eerie and electrifying...a tour-de-force of slow-burning intensity... (8/10)” (Geoff Barton, Classic Rock Magazine), “one of the most singular, distinctive albums that I’ve been sent in quite a while” (Ian Abrahams, Spacerock Reviews), and “one of 2015’s more interesting releases” (Bill Kopp, Musoscribe).

In 2016 she released her first live album. The Uffculme Variations was recorded at Kozfest 2016, where The Cary Grace Band was joined on stage by past collaborators (and Tygerland guests) Steffe Sharpstrings and Graham Clark for a dazzling, mostly improvised set.

Cary started an electronic side project the same year called YAMMA, beginning as a collaboration with synthesizer player and flautist Basil Brooks (formerly of Zorch and the Steve Hillage Band), and sometimes joined by Mike Howlett, Graham Clark, and Steve Everitt. Up to this point, it has been primarily a live performance project, playing at various festivals and parties around the UK. She plans to release an album of electronic material under the YAMMA moniker soon.

In 2018, she released a compilation album, Covers Volume I, an anthology of tracks recorded over the past decade, including many hard-to-find gems from limited edition vinyl releases and B-sides.

Cary occasionally makes guest appearances and collaborates with with other artists and bands, on synthesizers, electronics, and vocals, the most recent of which have included The Luck of Eden Hall, Jack Ellister, Kangaroo Moon, Tom Ashurst, and Nik Turner’s Space Ritual.

A brand new double album (two CDs, approximately 45 minutes each) of original material, Lady of Turquoise, was released on January 31st, 2020.

The new album features many musicians who are already established within Cary’s loose-knit music collective: the intrepid rhythm section of Andy Budge and David Payne, John Garden (multi-instrumentalist; Scissor Sisters, Alison Moyet), Steffe Sharpstrings (Lead Guitar; Gong, Planet Gong), Graham Clark (Violin and Guitar; Gong, Magick Brothers), Victoria Reyes (keyboards, backing vocals), — but there are also a few new personnel who have not played with her before: Ian East (Gong), Steve Everitt (Eat Static), and Andy Bole (Shankara).

See the gigs page for upcoming live dates near you.

For news and updates, you can visit Cary’s page on Facebook, follow @carygrace on Twitter, or join the email list.

Shop for music at http://music.carygrace.com/.