Spitfire Presents Baby Gramps - Eric Apoe and They

Seattle Legend Baby Gramps Returns.

Baby Gramps played the first show ever at the legendary Sit and Spin (in the current Spitfire building), and the final show before the Sit and Spin closed down.

"The Salvador Dali of Folk Music"

Baby Gramps is an energetic humorously entertaining performer with an endless repertoire.  He plays a National Steel guitar, and sings his own unique arrangements of rags, jazz, & blues from the 20's & 30's, and many originals with wordplay, humor, and throat singing. 

According to an article in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, Baby Gramps is acknowledged as one of the top 50 most influential musicians in the last 100 years.

This past year Baby Gramps was asked to be part of three films.  One is a documentary about the history of jugband music, another is an update of the academy award nominated film Streetwise that he performed some music for 30 years ago, and the third is 50 Feet of Film that includes a new original song about the homeless.

Baby Gramps toured Australia, England, and Ireland as part of the Rogues Gallery CD Concert Tour with Tim Robbins (actor), Marianne Faithful, Lou Reed, Martin Carthy, Suzanne Vega, Ralph Steadman, and many other internationally known performers.  The Rogues Gallery CD, produced by Johnny Depp and Hal Willner in connection with The Pirates of the Caribbean film, landed Baby Gramps on the David Letterman Show accompanied by Tony Garnier, Bob Dylan’s band leader and bass player.  

More info, song clips, and videos can be found at www.babygramps.com

Eric Apoe and They

• ERIC APOE, VOCALS AND GUITAR: The experience of Eric Apoe is a walk through a cinematic time capsule, his lyrical masterworks chill the soul and enlighten the mind. Apoe’s songwriting crosses genres like fiberoptic cable crosses the world. The song is the focus, not the style, the song decides the style,it desires to exist in. Apoe is a Seattle born songwriter and musician, but spent a number of years touring with Cajun Fiddler, Doug Kershaw, developing a lifelong passion for American Roots music. As a staff writer for Chappell Music, Apoe co-wrote and worked alongside Tim Harden (If I was a Carpenter, Reason to Believe), and Ron Davies, (It Ain't Easy, recorded by David Bowie). He also gained support and encouragement from two music industry legends, Tom Dowd and John Hammond Sr. To date, Apoe has released 6 CD’s with his band ‘Eric Apoe and They, FUNNY WORLD is the most recent. A seventh CD is in the works. In 2011 he produced a Pacific North West tribute to Ron Davies, THE MYSTERY OF RON DAVIES. Currently, Apoe is writing with Saar Liven, an Israeli singer/songwriter who appears on Funny World. Eric Apoe’s years of dedication and craftsmanship are clearly hewn into his pieces, with an ever adapting style and constant refinement that speaks to the heart of a true musician and rings in the soul of the listener. Eric Apoe is a survivor of the musical wars of the past, from the shelters of the executives of song, to the asylum sanctuary of the poets,and the musically insane victims of song. All too often the living are not understood, until they are no longer among us. Eric Apoe has never been a writer for the past, but for the future, as the present is becoming the past moment by moment, and will never keep pace with the true visionaries that do not subscribe to the philosophy that,all songs have already been written, but rather all good songs are the fingerprint of a real writer, and fingerprints are never the same. So, it is Apoe’s focus to write songs that have not been written. With poetic force and humorous paradox, Apoe is a Leonard Cohen for the Age of Unreality. Eric Apoe performs regularly in the Seattle area. 
• DAMIEN AITKEN, SAXOPHONE
• ALICIA DEJOIE, VIOLIN: Alicia DeJoie plays currently plays electric violin with Seattle-based progressive rock band, Moraine, and sings, plays guitar and banjo in her own band, Dr. Fleek and the Army of Experimental Children. She has recorded and toured the country with Jeremy Enigk from Sunny Day Real Estate and Firetheft fame, and has played violin with Daniel Barry’s Latin jazz unit Walk All Ways. She also plays violin in Being John McLaughlin, a Mahavishnu Orchestra tribute band in Seattle. Alicia has been a member of THEY since 1999.
• JAMES DEJOIE, CLARINET,BASS CLARINET,SAX
• TIGE DECOSTER, BASS
• JOHN HANFORD, ELECTRIC GUITAR
• OLLI KLOMP, DRUMS
• DUNE BUTLER, BASS

More info, songs, and videos available at www.ericapoe.com