Here’s some new music from Peoria-based musician Jared Grabb – a whole new release of recreated cover songs and also a new music video! Normally we keep it to what’s going on in Springfield on our site but this one is being presented by “First Try Sessions“, the newly created organization by Jess and Brandon Carnes of Looming aimed at curating music lessons for 7-17 year olds in the area.

Jared Grabb (Scouts Honor, Angry Gods, The Forecast) is a singer-songwriter hailing from the mid-sized Midwestern city of Peoria, Illinois. Grabb has been performing under his own name since 2001. ‘First Try Sessions Presents: Rest On Us All’ is the sixth full-length album under Grabb’s own name and his first consisting of cover songs. The album’s most recent predecessor was ‘Among Thieves,’ which was released by Jared Grabb Among Thieves (full band) back in June of 2020. 

‘…Rest On Us All’ is an acoustic affair with all instruments and recording performed by Jared Grabb himself. Most songs are made up of acoustic guitars with accordion and vocals, while banjo, electric guitar, and piano appear for occasional added flavor. The original performers covered on this album are disparate, including country artist Miranda Lambert, blues pianist Ray Charles, indie rockers The Thermals, electronic artists Sylvan Esso, and 1940s folk singer Woody Guthrie among others. 

Donations taken in from downloads of the album through bandcamp go directly towards supporting First Try Sessions and their mission.

‘The Body, the Blood, the Machine’ by The Thermals is a classic 2000s indie/punk record about fascism and theocracy. Unfortunately, I missed opportunities to see this band live, but this album has been in my headphones for around a decade now. In 2015, I released an extremely limited run of lathe-cut LPs with live solo recordings of both “A Pillar of Salt” and “Returning to the Fold.” It felt good to record a proper multi-tracked version “Returning to the Fold” for this release. As for the video, it was inspired by my daughter’s recent obsession with the ‘Among Us’ video game. She formed the characters out of clay and then my wife, Becca Taylor, went on to animate them using stop motion. It’s intended to be rough and fun. I get a kick out of it, and I hope you will too.

Check out Jared Grabb’s video for “Returning To The Fold” below!