Kara Grainger - Living With Your Ghost (2018)

Australian Kara Grainger has graced the international blues and roots circuit for a decade now. Originally hailed as mostly a guitar slinger, for her adept picking and slide skills, Grainger proves to be a formidable singer-songwriter on this, her fourth album. Her sultry vocals combined with her incendiary guitar playing is on full display on the opening title track but as the album unfolds she renders some tender ballads and infectious roots material too.

Around a year ago Grainger headed to Wire studios in Austin TX to make this album, co-produced by Grammy Award winner Anders Osborne whose guitar and vocals are all over the record. The album was engineered by Grammy winner Stuart Sullivan. Suffice it to say, Grainger wasn’t fooling around. Additionally, a top-notch band supports with Ivan Neville on keys, J.J. Johnson on drums, Dave Monsey on bass, as well as the Texas Horns.

Grainger described the music this way, “The music is going to be as diverse as ever. A little bit of blues, folk… some personal introspective songs, some funk and some rock ‘n roll.” Osborne, in turn, had this to say about Grainger, “I love Kara’s voice! She has that rare quality that evokes a distant warm memory and connects you with her personally as well as musically. A fantastic guitar player and beautiful songs! A treat to work with.” Grainger wrote six of the dozen songs herself, four with Osborne, one with Trevor Manear and another, “Broken Record” from another co-writer team.