It was a year ago to the day that I first heard the words “Spaceman’s Wonderbox.” I was speaking with songwriter and musician Michael Graber, and he intimated that such a box had been created, using bits of twine, corn stalks and rusty hinges discovered during a barn dance. But mere words couldn’t quite convey what was in the box.
Come tomorrow night, the box will be opened for all to see. Indeed, the event will be a bit of a barn dance in its own right, although it won’t happen in a barn, but a lodge. Black Lodge, to be exact. The brilliantly curated video rental shop on Cleveland Street will open its doors to live performance for the first time since lockdown went into effect last year, with three bands, culminating in a performance by Graber’s venturesome bluegrass/Americana group, Graber Gryass.
It all begins on May 22 with Ben Abney and the Hurts at 7:15 p.m., followed by the beloved Tennessee Screamers, no strangers to bluegrass and harmony singing themselves. And then, finally, in real time, the box will be opened.
Okay, to be fair, there may be no literal box. Because Spaceman’s Wonderbox is more of a state of mind. More than just the title of Graber Gryass’ new album, released today, it’s also the concept that ties the album together, and helps to distinguish it from the group’s previous album, Late Bloom.
That 2020 release was called “An impressive album … an absolutely entertaining experience … fully fueled grassicana, riveting and robust” by Bluegrass Today, and favored a more traditional approach. But while recording it in the throes of quarantine life, the band went to seed a bit. They “cut gravity’s string,” to quote one lyric from the new album’s lead track, and their imaginations became slightly unmoored.
The result is a box that’s full of surprises and left turns. “We planted ourselves within bluegrass tradition with our first record,” says Graber, “with the intention of branching out and pushing boundaries on our second.” A year ago, he referred to it as “shamanic spoken word and ecstatic love poetry,” and so it is, but there are still plenty of traditional arrangements to ground the proceedings.
The album’s opener, with all its abstract musings about what keeps us earthbound, adheres to a fairly familiar song structure. So does the next cut, “It Was Always You,” a mystical, generational ode sweetly sung by Graber’s adult daughter, Rowan Gratz.
Many tracks hew close to these traditional vines, combining ancient forms with more free-ranging lyrics, much in the style of the Incredible String Band. Other tracks become more unhinged. But let’s let that be a surprise. Venture out as the Spaceman does. Go out to see and hear the box revealed, tomorrow night at the Black Lodge.
