Gillian Grogan is an independent folk musician and songwriter. While she
may be new to the Sonoma scene, her songs carry the familiarity of a
thin layer of road dust on the windshield, an old friend’s hand upon
your shoulder, the scent of a blossom you once knew…
Grogan's unique blend of folk, soul, blues, and old time balladry is
influenced by a wide and honest spectrum of her experience as a
90’s-female-power-pop fan-girl turned banjo-hugging, bluegrass-loving
researcher of many a Child ballad. Tickled strings and floating vocals,
hammered riffs and belted requests—Grogan’s music is untamed and
untethered to any genre. Her songwriting has been deeply influenced by
Bob Dylan, Ben Howard, Tracy Chapman, Justin Vernon, Regina Spektor and
Gillian Welch, among others.
Misadventures Magazine says "Gillian's music is woven with intention and imprinted with the places and people she's come across in her travels."
Gillian sings stories where Americana meets folk and steeps into soul, where finger picking builds and swells and gets slapped back to silence. The Woven Collective calls it "an unforgiving tuggin' at your roots, no matter where you come from, her lyrics wash over you like gentle reminders of another life you haven't had yet."
She calls it full-bodied folk.
Grogan released “Here In The Garden”, a bedroom EP and bounty of garden
metaphor, in the summer of 2020, following the release of her original
and entirely vocal compilation of “Winter Ballads”. She released the
plunky EP “Redbird” with her Boston-based band Honeyfoot back in 2017
and her first compilation of original music, recorded on an iPhone in an
unfurnished living room, was the basis of the Five Feet Small tour that began this wild ride a whopping two vans ago.
She is wrapping up work on her first full length studio album, a collaboration with Brooklyn-based artists Nico Osborne, Gerard Marcus, Duncan Standish, Reid Jenkins, and Renata Zeiguer and Seattle-based picker Chris Chronopoulos. Rumor has it there’s another quick and dirty EP in the works for release this summer, weather willing.
Pairs well with massive vistas, bustling gardens, light mischief, hope and driving alone.
Recommended if you like: Joni Mitchell, Bon Iver, Feist, Ben Howard, Fiona Apple, Laura Marling, Patty Griffin, Haley Heynderickx, Rufus Wainwright, Brandi Carlile
