Granville Automatic shared the room at Eddie’s Attic with Brian Collins and Jessica Cayne this weekend and it was a wonderful nite of Original MUSIC. I am still HIGH from it!!
I think it is Kool that most of their MUSIC is from History… And as they said, “will never run out of material.”
Amazingly talented Songstresses that are persevering History through Song!
Granville Automatic is Vanessa Olivarez and Elizabeth Elkins. The duo write songs pulled from a shared love of history, horses and war. Granville Automatic is named after a 19th-century typewriter: Vanessa is a collector. With sonic references like Lyle Lovett, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson, Granville Automatic has created a quiet and lyrical sound devoted to telling stories from the past. After writing together first in the spring of 2009, the pair has more than 90 songs – almost all of which tell stories from history.
GA’S very first release was “Live from Sun Studio”, an eight-song set recorded live at Memphis’ historic Sun Studio, and released as an iTunes exclusive January 31, 2012.
Chosen as the 2012 Composers in Residence at Seaside, Fla.’s prestigious Escape to Create program, the pair spent the month of January in residence, where they wrote An Army Without Music: Civil War Stories from Hallowed Ground. Their multimedia presentation premiered to a capacity crowd at the Seaside Repertory Theater. Many of the new songs will become the duo’s third album, which will be recorded on the Civil War battlefields in 2013. The pair has partnered with the Civil War Trust to secure recording onsite, and to organize a concert tour of the battlefields after the album’s release.
For more information on this project, visit www.granvilleautomatic.com.
Vanessa Olivarez~
When did you know MUSIC was your future?
I have known MUSIC was going to be my future from the time I was 4 years old. I always loved singing for my family and entertaining everyone. I began getting more serious about it when I was about 9 or 10… Writing my own material, and telling my parents I was “ready for close-up”! I made my first album at 17.
I come from a coal mining family, Tell me about “Tacoma Coal Line”.
Tacoma Coal Line is about Elizabeth’s father’s childhood in the coal mining town of Tacoma. We were inspired by our visit there. It is one of the only songs we have actually written together all at once. We wrote it in the car on a long drive. Typically, we start songs separately and then come together to complete them. I might change a melody to one of hers… Or she might complete a verse to one of mine.
Share the stage with anyone dead or alive?
If I could share the stage with anyone, I would sing harmony with Emmylou Harris. She is an angel. A genius angel.
Describe Elizabeth.
Hard-headed, brilliant, a lone wolf, intelligent, organized, a true friend, a lioness, hot-headed, innovative, a leader, tall!
Elizabeth Elkins~
Your first fave Band?
Morrissey. I got obsessed with the Viva Hate album, and still am. But honestly as a kid I had a serious John Denver phase.
Share the stage with anyone dead or alive?
I’d love to share the stage with – tough question as I’m torn between the songwriter part of me and the rocker in me. As a songwriter, I’d love to share the stage with somebody like Paul Simon or Billy Joel. From a performance standpoint, I’d love to be in front of a great rock band like Rage Against the Machine. And I would like to duet with Mike Ness of Social Distortion.
Tell us about your partnership with Civil War Trust.
The Civil War Trust is helping us secure the permissions to record and film at Civil War battle locations around the country for our next album, “An Army Without Music”. Sometimes we’ll be recording in a shopping mall, or on an interstate, but other times, like recently at Glorieta Pass, New Mexico, we were on National Park Service lands.
Describe Vanessa.
Vanessa is the complete opposite of me. And that’s why this songwriting partnership works so well.
Photos and Video from Eddie’s By Dennis Tudor
