the grand press kit

praise for
the grand shell game

"listen a first time just to be surprised at what comes next, then listen repeatedly to examine and contemplate the messages in the song layers..."

Sarah Fuller Hall - No Depression - August 2016

"this is a heavy album, rich in texture, awash in melody, full of literary and emotional nuance... unique within its indie rock context even as it bears familiar overtones of years gone by"

Fred Mills - Blurt Magazine - November 2016

"big ideas with introspective wisdom, unfurling harmonies, and arrangements that help create at once classic and refreshingly new songs"

Courtney Devores - The Charlotte Observer - December 2016

"Ween meet the Beatles via early Pink Floyd as if concocted from a mad scientists twisted mind... music made for those who prefer challenging art"

Tom Netherland - Bristol Herald Courier - August 2016

"The Grand Shell Game's impressive sound is genre-bending, sophisticated, and confident... an awe-worthy performance" 

Mauli Desai - The Red & Black, Athens GA - June 2016

"ee cummings as a songwriter working with an army of well-versed and multi-dimensional musicians"

Gina Gambony - WHQR Public Radio (eastern NC) - June 2016

"Man on a Wire, the smart six-song debut from Carrboro sextet Grand Shell Game, starts from a bedrock of jangling roots rock and ponderous poetry. The songs then spin outward, taking cues from The Beatles or Lambchop, Neutral Milk Hotel or Ween in turn. Though all interesting, some of these tunes are breathless, fetching, and wild, while others turn inward for abiding reflection. Think Bombadil operating beneath a veneer of cool, The Head & The Heart with less to lose, or one of the year’s most promising local starts."

Grayson Haver Currin - Indy Week, Central, NC - June 2016

"The Grand Shell Game brings to mind bands like They Might Be Giants, The Mountain Goats or Dr. Dog, with their literate, unaffected vocals, and almost manic eclecticism."

John Adamian  - YES! Weekly, Greensboro, NC - June 2016

"Floydfest "On the Rise" alum the grand shell game kicks ass... a truly authentic brand of Americana rock n' roll." 

Kris Hodges - Producer of Floydfest - September 2015

"Recalling Harvest-era Neil Young, the grand shell game have tapped into the magic formula for fusing country with folk. A true gem of a song to be sure"

Leks Malby - Aside/Beside music blog review of "to the stars and back" - June 2016

"They won the hearts of many with their dead-earnest Southern lit-fueled Americana... Clearly these boys love to play." 

Chronogram Magazine (Hudson Valley, NY) - April 2015

"Cosmic-leaning roots rock that lets loose with limber extemporizations" 

Patrick Wall - Indy Week - June 2015

video

history

we are all a part of the grand shell game. we are just some players.

and we have failed.

this does not mean we will not succeed. nor does it mean we should not consider ourselves or our collective work a success.

the future is unwritten.
failure is a passive tense.

seduced by what is “needed to do”, it is so easy to lose ourselves. we did not come together to succeed. we simply came to play. we share a common desire to create and to love. together each helps the others to develop a better self.

we failures, we never stop. we continue to play on. to grow and change, as a group and as individuals. we can leave behind behind ambition and “best practice”. that is not who we are. that is not what we do. we always knew that. may we now begin to accept it?

after all, the rules are dependent on the players. the players are the game. the songs we all sing are introspectively expansive. broad in their narrowness. exotic in their familiarity. perhaps simply too complicated to matter to anyone who does not care to understand?

there is so much to understand, and we are all so insignificant. but we all do care, as best we can. in the end, we can be all right with this.

we are happy to play if asked and are able. we love what we do. we do it for love.

this band of the grand shell game is made up of: daniel fields, dylan turner, e-s guthrie, joe macphail, rob "poppa" davis, rob "the voice" dimauro, and you. find more about what moves us at thegrandshellgame.com

contact info

website:
http://www.thegrandshellgame.com

booking:
thegrandshellgame@gmail.com

management:
Miss Moneypenny
moneypenny@thegrandshellgame.com

publicity:
moneypenny@thegrandshellgame.com

telephone:
three four seven-746-1069

albums

"IN MEMORY..."
released May 1, 2017

benefiting
the Jana Marie Foundation

"man on a wire" released june 2016

high-res photos