This family rises to challenge, makes albums in a month

Terry Grosvenor of Newport performs as Terry Taffinder, and her son Andrew Grosvenor of Concord, N.H., performs as Andrew North. Each created albums of at least 10 songs or 35 minutes of music during the month of February.

NEWPORT — Terry and Rick Grosvenor are a team as real estate brokers, but they are also well-known artists in the city — Terry as a singer and songwriter and Rick as a painter and co-producer of his wife’s 11 albums.

Their son, Andrew Grosvenor, 35, now lives in Concord, New Hampshire, as a practicing attorney, but he also has a strong avocation in music and performs as Andrew North with his band, The Rangers, when he has time.

Mother and son recently took on the RPM Challenge 2019, now a worldwide internet contest in which competitors have the month of February to create an album of at least 10 songs or 35 minutes of music.

Terry Grosvenor, who performs under her maiden name, Terry Taffinder, produced a 12-song album called “Fine Wine,” geared to adults. That has to be pointed out, because some of her more recent albums have been created for children.

“This musical album is like a fine wine — it is intoxicating and gets better and better with each listening,” is the way she describes the album. “The songs have lots of flavor, rhythm and harmony.”

Taffinder brings her music to people around the world through CD Baby, Inc., which distributes her content to online music retailers like Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, as well as You Tube and most other online music sites.

Grosvenor produced a 10-song album called “In the Center” that can be heard on YouTube and other social media sites. He first entered the RPM competition in 2018, when he created an album called “Ursa Verde,” and challenged his mother to try it as well this year.

“He said to me, ‘Just do it,’ “Taffinder said. “Attempting to produce and record a body of work in such a short amount of time was stressful but exhilarating and gratifying once the album was finished.”

Grosvenor got back into music about three years ago, but he and his band now perform regularly, featuring mostly music he has written. He grew up on Redwood Street and Carroll Avenue practicing on his family’s grand piano.

Besides playing the piano, he taught himself to play electric bass to accompany himself on his recordings for a more natural sound.

“I had to keep it all under my control,” he said.

His late grandfather, Richard Grosvenor, is a renowned Newport artist whose paintings have been exhibited nationally and who inspired the Newport Art Museum’s annual “Wet Paint” competition.

Richard Grosvenor’s four children — John and Holly, both architects, and James, a New York financier, besides Rick — are all accomplished painters. Rick, John, Holly and their father have been featured in local art exhibits over the years, including at Arnold’s Art on Thames Street a few years ago. Rick Grosvenor just had an exhibit at the Providence Art Club.

“Almost everyone in my family juggles a conventional career with artistic endeavors,” Andrew Grosvenor said.

Years ago, Terry Taffinder Grosvenor taught music for kindergarten through third grade students at the former Cluny School on Brenton Road.

“I loved that, working with the children every day,” she said.

She did concerts and participated in many performances for children. She composed pieces for the Island Moving Co., all the while working and raising four children.

During her long career, Taffinder has worked professionally in Newport, New Hampshire, New York City, London and Sao Paulo, Brazil, as a soloist, with three rock bands, a trio, and a duet.

“It’s difficult to have a music career while trying to have a personal life at the same time,” she said. “I was always conflicted, but it all worked out.”

Taffinder has not given up appearing in public. Just last September, she her son performed together at Area 23 in Concord, New Hampshire.

“I love live singing,” she said.

But Taffinder is now focusing on writing original pieces – composing, playing and singing all the instrumental and vocal parts for recordings. She has written ballets, theme songs, a film score, and radio jingles besides her albums.

On “Fine Wine,” she plays all the tracks as well as sings. Rick Grosvenor was co-producer and sound engineer for all 11 of her albums: the children’s albums “Fun Songs for Tadpoles to Frogs,” “On the Wings of a Dragonfly,” “Lollipops: Pop Songs for Young Rockers,” and “Feathers, Fur and Fun;” the dance albums: “A Christmas Ballet,” and “Teetoo, the Little Star;” and her albums for grown-ups: “Bull in a China Shop,” “Leaving the Rat Race,” “Tigress,” and “Poof: It’s All Gone,” before “Fine Wine.”

“Thank goodness my husband is tech savvy,” Taffinder said. “I love the process of writing music — giving shape to something that did not exist before.”

Early in her career in Newport, she sang with Sugar and Spice at the former Muenchinger King, among many other venues.

Andrew Grosvenor is one of four siblings and a graduate of St. George’s School in Middletown, Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and Vermont Law School in South Royalton, Vermont. He now commutes between Manchester, New Hampshire, and Burlington, Vermont, as part of his law practice.

While he was at Trinity, he formed a band that was called The Woodshed. It was then that he started writing his own music. The band moved to New York City for a while, then to Burlington, Vermont. In 2007, The Woodshed broke up after one member stayed in New York and another left for law school.

Grosvenor also went to law school and took a break from music.

Now, he and his wife have a toddler son and another child on the way.

“Having kids myself gives me a whole new appreciation for what my parents did,” he said.

https://www.newportri.com/news/20190317/this-family-rises-to-challenge-makes-albums-in-month

Album Review: Andrew North’s ‘Lost City’ a piano-lover’s dream

If you’re a regular reader of the Insider or a regular fan of the local music scene, you’ve probably seen the name – and probably the person, too – Andrew North. Maybe you’ve seen it as Andrew of the North, or you’ve seen the full-band version called Andrew North and the Rangers. The point is, it’s all the same guy (with sometimes different accompanying members), Andrew Grosvenor of Concord, and he has a new solo album out. He also has a show coming up at Penuche’s this Saturday night, where he’ll likely be playing cuts from the new album as well as some older stuff.

Following his debut solo album, Ursa Verde, which came out in June 2018, the pianist/vocalist/composer released Lost City online March 8. The album features six tracks, and the content covers 15 years and countless changes within Grosvenor’s life. It’s available for download on Bandcamp, CDBaby, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and all other major streaming services.

He was nice enough to send me a link to the album to have a listen, and it really was a pleasure to take in. Here’s my take on the album, track by track:

1. “Go North”: Lost City’s opening track comes out strong with a snazzy, big sound at the beginning featuring piano and snappy drums. It feels like a swingy, fun, kind of upbeat dance tune from a bygone era. Some cool organ backing (Grosvenor plays piano, organ, synthesizer, bass and guitar; this album features Pete Casselman on drums) gives the song more depth and ambiance.

There’s a decidedly old-timey feel to this song. The voice is on the deeper side, with very clear annunciation. He doesn’t stray far from his vocal range – if I knew the words, I feel like I could sing along with ease.

While the song has a certain retro vibe, it also reminds me in some ways of the Barenaked Ladies – just a light, fun, pop/rock folksy style that’s easy to hum and toe-tap along to.

2. “Out of Time”: This track feels more like a classic rock/pop song. The upbeat piano riff is a bit reminiscent of a Beatles tune – not really a specific one, but in that style. Some synthesized horns add to the old-time feel that the first track established. That organ comes back and blends perfectly with the mix.

There’s a nice synth solo/breakdown (it sounds like synth anyway, though it could be a guitar with some effects) that really shows off Grosvenor’s skills on the keys (that is, you know, assuming it actually is keys).

3. “Back in the Shed”: This track has a different vibe from the first two, featuring a bluesy opening with jazzy drums and a pretty trippy synth riff going on. “Back in the Shed” is very electronic compared to the other songs so far, and is the first instrumental track on the record. The song feels like a free-form jazz jam, on the bluesier side, that keeps building – tension rises all the way to about 2:45, then slows down and really changes pace and mood before picking back up again and intensifying.

4. “Thing About the Woods”: Another upbeat piano riff to start it off, with quick drums joining right in. Harmonies are used in the vocals, which sounds good and provides layers. This is a fun major-key riff/progression – Dare I say the riff reminds me of the Charlie Brown song? Lyrically, it deals with the theme of inevitable change, not returning the same.

5. “The Jungle”: This one opens with a much darker, synthesized sound that reminds me of an alien ship or something like that. Then a bluesy piano/synth riff kicks in and creates a jazz club feel. “The Jungle” has a piano solo close to 4 minutes in, which is very jazzy and kind of jerky. It builds to quite a rocking instrumental section, then comes back to chorus nicely.

6. “Braggadocio”: This one opens with another uplifting, snappy, major-key piano riff, with a tricky time signature – I couldn’t figure it out (I think he’s playing on the off beat). The piano fills are very ornate and full, which is key because there are no drums on this track. It feels triumphant – this should be the music they play when you beat a Nintendo game. Grosvenor really works the range of the piano in this song, going up to the higher notes before slowly coming back down to the midrange stuff to put the album to bed.

The last song is a perfect ending to a very delightful, all-around uplifting album. Headbangers and gangsta rappers may not like it much, but pretty much everyone else should.

https://www.theconcordinsider.com/2019/03/19/album-review-andrew-norths-lost-city-a-piano-lovers-dream/

Concord Musician Andrew of the North has a new CD Out

Concord musician Andrew of the North, aka Andrew Grosvenor, recently released his debut solo album, “Ursa Verde,” and is celebrating with a two-set show at Area 23 this Friday featuring a couple opening acts and his newly created trio.

Grosvenor grew up in Rhode Island and began playing piano at the age of three thanks to his mom, who is also a musician. He moved to Vermont after college with his band, The Woodshed. After the band went its separate ways, Grosvenor took about a decade off from music before embarking on his solo career as Andrew of the North. We caught up with Grosvenor last week in anticipation of his show to get all the details about his album, life in general and how you can listen to his new tunes.

So we understand you created this album as part of the RPM Challenge. Can you explain what that is and how it works? Every February musicians all over the world create a complete album from start to finish in 28 days, it’s like national novel writing month for songwriters. I had never heard of it, but a friend told me about it last winter and I decided to give it a go! I was already working on another album, but I had a lot of ideas for new songs and I had a feeling I could pull it off.

What was it like to have that kind of deadline looming over you, especially since you had never put out an album before? How do you feel it went overall? I’ve worked on a couple of albums with bands before, but solo was interesting. I can be a perfectionist in the studio (which sometimes drives bandmates crazy), so the time constraint was a mixed blessing. Twenty-eight days is not a lot of time, and as it got down to the wire I had to accept that I couldn’t put together a perfect album for this. I think that was a good thing. It’s rough around the edges, but I love the songs and I like the roughness more as I live with it. I’m a horrible procrastinator, so it was a stressful month.

Tell us a little about the album: What was the inspiration for it? It was an experiment – sign up to do it and see what comes out. I don’t think there’s a clear through line to the album, but lyrically a lot of the songs are about making peace with anxiety and moving forward in life even when it’s not what you pictured for yourself. Instrumentally, I am a vintage keyboard nut, so I really wanted to play around with both acoustic and electric piano sounds. I’ve been really into overdriving pianos to give the sound a little more grit. Those sounds are all over this album. I’m lucky to have some really talented friends – a high school classmate of mine, Chrissy Mitchell Adams of Burlington, Vt. did the art for me, and I had Tank Studios in Burlington mix and master the tracks for the release. They did an absolutely incredible job. I also want to thank my wife, Sarah, for putting up with me that month. I was not easy to live with.

Did you write all the songs in that one month or was it a collection of ones that you had written before but never recorded? A couple of them were mostly written already (“Tell Me” and “11 at 11”), but none of them were really done. I was really nervous about not having enough, but these things have a way of working out. “Atter” is the song that saved the day – I needed one more track and it came to me in the shower on like day 25 and I scrambled to jot notes in my phone with a towel around me! I’m really happy with how that one came out.

Since it’s a solo album, did you play all the instruments yourself? I did. I borrowed an electric bass and learned how to play it just for this, which was exciting. I am definitely not a bassist.

Where did the name Andrew of the North come from? Andrew of the North is a name born from necessity. My last name is Grosvenor, which has a silent “s” in it and doesn’t really have a showbiz ring to it. I didn’t want to make up a fake last name, so I tried to come up with something that would give some identity. Moving to Northern New England is probably the defining decision of my life – I love it up here and I wanted to bring that into the name.

We saw that you play solo shows, as well as in duos and trios, which format do you like best? (And be honest, it’s okay if you prefer the spotlight solely on yourself.) Haha, we’ll see about this trio show on the 29th – that’s a new lineup, so it’s untested, but practice has been great and I’m so excited about it. Honestly, I play solo because I can. It’s nice not to have to coordinate with bandmates to book gigs, but I strongly believe that music is a conversational language and having bandmates to play off of makes things so much more interesting. I play in a duo with the drummer from my old band – we’ve been playing together for over 15 years, and we still have a blast. I enjoy playing solo, but honestly I think it’s much better with a full band.

What do you do when you’re not creating or playing music? Do you have a job? Hobbies? A family? Well I have a 3-year-old, so that’s a good chunk of time right there. I work as a business lawyer by day, which has been great for me, though the time commitment can be tough. Becoming a dad made me really prioritize my hobbies – I used to be an avid homebrewer, but music was more important to me. I still do a lot of hiking and fun stuff with my family, but I’m working on music in all my spare time right now.

What’s the show going to be like at Area 23 on Friday? I’m so excited for this one. Area 23 is starting to become the hub of the local music scene, and they’ve got a great lineup. I think music is starting around 5 p.m. with Don Bartenstein, then the Sensual Sequoias (gotta love that name) are playing a set at 8. I’ll be playing two sets starting at 9. Area 23’s a great venue, good tap selection and usually a good turnout. It’s a really fun room to play in. This is the debut for my trio (featuring Dale Grant on drums and Chip Spangler on bass) and it’s going to be so much fun. I think we’re going to be able to incorporate some special guests. We’ve been working on some funky stuff and some rock, almost all original material. It will be a much bigger sound than my pure solo stuff.

For those who haven’t heard your music, what would be a good equivalent in the music world? Haha, every musician’s favorite question. … I hate to say it, but a ton of people have told me that my singing sounds like Trey Anastasio from Phish – he’s been a big influence on me since high school, and that’s definitely represented in my stuff. I don’t think trying to be “the next” anyone is a good idea, so I try to follow my own creativity wherever it leads. I do try to incorporate a lot of improvisation into my work. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of older jazz, Art Blakey and stuff like that, and a fair amount of bluegrass. I think it’s indirect, but a lot of that stuff comes out in my songwriting.

Where can folks find the album? Everywhere! (except CD) – it’s a digital release, so you can grab it on iTunes, Spotify, Google Music, pretty much everywhere. I may do a small run of CDs to sell around town if there’s enough interest.

Tell us a few fun facts about yourself that people might find interesting:Hmmm… I do yoga every day. My favorite dinosaur is T-Rex. I am a top-notch foosball player. I have backyard chickens. The only childhood food aversion I still have is canned tuna – it grosses me out.

Locals may know New Hampshire-based pianist Andrew Grosvenor from his frequent appearances in Burlington, including the weekly Family Night jam sessions at SideBar and his own monthly residency at Radio Bean. Additionally, he played in the long-defunct Burlington group Woodshed. His mythic current moniker, Andrew of the North, aligns with the grandiose tunes of his latest album, Ursa Verde. 

Recorded for the 2018 RPM Challenge — a yearly feat of endurance that tasks participants with crafting a 10-song album in 28 days — Ursa Verde has an energized, urgent sound. Grosvenor played every instrument and tracked all of the parts in his basement. Smartly, he enlisted Burlington's Tank Recording Studio for mixing and mastering assistance; the final product is both scrappy and solid. 

Grosvenor's vocals are crisp and clear throughout. His enunciation and vocal timbre recall that of a certain ultra-phamous jam band's front man. In fact, his jangly, soul- and blues-injected keyboard-rock is generally reminiscent of Phish. 

Vaguely tropical beats and rounded bass open "Aditi." Multitracked vintage keys and piano gurgle beneath Grosvenor's imposing, occasionally faltering vocals. 

With only handclaps and the tinny chirp of a coffee cup struck with a wedding ring, "Holler" stands out from the other keyboard-driven cuts. With references to the Maccabees on every refrain, it's like an obscure folk song you'd hear in an elementary school music class. But what's it doing in the middle of a rock record? 

A blown-out Rhodes anchors the bouncy "Tell Me." The narrative ballad draws a connection between life's mundaneness and the anxiety that comes with it. 

Grosvenor's tunes have a humble sincerity that makes Ursa Verde a valiant effort.

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/four-new-albums-from-formerly-local-artists/Content?oid=16878038

Concord Monitor - March 22, 2018

Concord musician embarks on RPM Challenge

One month. One album. It may be a lot of work, but why not?

In November, writers have National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Beginning in 2005, The Wire in Portsmouth proposed the RPM Challenge for February, which was already Album Writing Month. Musicians have 28 days to come up with either 10 songs or 35 minutes of music with cover art.

Andrew Grosvenor, 34, of Concord just discovered the challenge this year and decided to take up the challenge; just one of the hundreds of people to do so.

“I had a lot of half-baked ideas floating around for a while,” he said.

Grosvenor said he created a list of those ideas and then began laying tracks in his basement. Now, he has a full album called Ursa Verde...

Full Article: http://www.concordmonitor.com/Andrew-of-the-North-records-album-in-a-month-16348523