Just picking up a copy of “Grandma’s Old Couch,” Monitor and the Merrimac’s new CD, is different. The CD cover is a deep brown chocolate color, and it is smooth to the touch.
Made from 100 percent recycled paper, there is a distinctive, organic feeling. Much like the CD cover, Monitor and the Merrimac has a natural country blues feeling that you don’t often hear today.
The group is led by Fairfield alumnus Dave Grazynski who, in true old-time fashion, plays the banjo while singing lead vocals with a crisp, Southern-sounding voice. Listening to “Couch,” you would have no idea that Grazynski is a young guy from the North and not a Southern blues man from the mountains of North Carolina.
Hear some of his music in this youtube clip
“Couch” includes a variety of bluegrass sounds, jumping from more traditional bluegrass like that of Bill Monroe on the track “Grandma’s Old Couch” to a more rock-blended fusion like the Grateful Dead on the track “Quiet Life” or “Galoshes.”
The inclusion of slower ballads such as “Family Jewel” provides a pleasant break from the other high-energy tracks.
Listening to “Couch” is like taking a trip to a different world one where people still gather around in small settings to really engage and listen to music. There is something about bluegrass that grabs the listener; it is hard to passively listen to “Couch” without being sucked in.
“Couch” displays a variety of styles and paces that shows the true power of bluegrass; at one moment it can make you want to dance while at others it is very reflective and heartfelt. In an era of hollow pop songs, it is refreshing to hear a genuine art form like bluegrass.
There is something refreshing in Grazynski’s vocals. His accent while singing is thick, but thick in a good way.
It is with this distance that he manages to transcend what a stereotypical blues singer would sound like, making him hard to dismiss.
In a sense Grazynski is creating a new sub-genre of bluegrass: Northern bluegrass. You can pick up on this in songs like “Galoshes” – anyone who has ever lived in the South can tell you there are no galoshes.
As Grazynski sings the lines of the song, you can sense the breaking of his accent. It almost makes you wonder, “Do you have to keep the Southern accent to do bluegrass?”
“Galoshes,” the last song on the track, is a perfect example of “Couch” as a whole. It starts out as traditional bluegrass but then pushes its way into a full-out rock song. This transition leaves the listener craving more tracks that push the boundaries of bluegrass.
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