Kev Gray & The Gravy Train

The band started as a recording trio in 2006 as Akibakei, featuring Japanese TV star, Christy Strothers, female singer from the show, The Human Jukebox; and veteran New York saxophonist, Arnie Baruch, alongside Gray on vocals and guitar. After returning to Tokyo in January 2008, a live duo was formed between Gray and classical guitarist, Robin Watson. Watson was at the time a member of the British-Japanese outfit, Eden Rogue, with the Tokyo label, Suzuki Records. They were joined by Damien Cavanagh, former drummer with the British prog-indie group, Circulus, played the cajón in the trio due to the acoustic nature of the band.

The band won the Gaijin Sounds songwriting award in April 2008 for the song, "How The Story Ends".[1] This attracted the attention of Australian music producer, Paul Morgan, who then invited them to record at his Medici Studios and set up Hemlock Music to promote the band. The resulting recording, Shipwrecked, was produced by ARIA-nominated, Mike Stangel, at the studio in Melbourne in August 2008. The band released their debut EP, Shipwrecked, on November 7, 2008, in Ebisu, Tokyo.

To increase the band's songwriting profile, the group released a collection of early recordings, I Should've Stopped There. The cover, designed by Rob Moore, featured "The Angel of Sorrow", from a mural in Valencia, Spain. Although the lyrical and vocal strength of the collection had initially been enough to kickstart the band's initial success, with songs such as the 1950s swing number, "Guatemala", and the harmony rich gospel song, "Jordan River", the album received mixed reaction due to the poor quality production and some mediocre album tracks.

In April 2009, the band won another Gaijin Sounds award, this time for "One More Chance".[10] The increased exposure saw the band secure a monthly residency at The Crocodile Club,[11] a former rockabilly hangout in Harajuku with their regular UK-Japan Night.[4] During this period, Hemlock Music arranged international support acts such as Afro-American kalimba artist, Kevin Spears; world music from Arabiki-Beat, and the Austin-based country singer, Jackie Bristow. The band also used the club to record live recordings and debut new songs, including The Veil Has Been Lifted, Who Loves The Lonely, and their most popular song, Six Feet Under.[6]

The Gravy Train – Backstage in the Green Room at the Crocodile Club, Shibuya

The proposed ethos of Hemlock music was that Tokyo bands would be able fund recordings through live receipts. The first planned album was to be Antidote, which according to Gray, was to be a showcase of the band's diversity. Songs were written in a mix of genres such as country-inspired, Letters from Tijuana; the blues number, Swingin'; the Cuban-influenced, Voodoo Doll; and the 6/8 open chord waltz, Long Time Coming. The diversity of the song content was to be matched by the lyrical themes which drew upon allegedly true stories, from suicidal friends to a swingers party in a Japanese hot spring. However, production problems and personal differences plagued the recordings delaying its completion. The proposed launch went ahead on November 11, 2009, but without the CD, which despite attempts at remixing would finally be mostly re-recorded.

Despite the ongoing problems with the recordings, the band continued to have increasing success on the live scene around Japan. After playing at Hard Rock Cafe in Nagoya in early 2009, they were invited to open the Hakuba Music Festival, also known as KevRock after its Australian organizer, Kevin Gibson, appearing with Australian bands, the Hoodoo Gurus and Regurgitator. This was followed up with appearance at Japan Music Week, the Tokyo attempt at SXSW in November of that year.

After suffering from ill health, Watson left the band in January 2010, with Canadian, Chris Cooling, taking over on electric guitar, and Mississippian, Forrest Nelson on bass, giving the band a more dynamic sound. Gray returned to London in July 2010 to promote his new solo album, The Veil Has Been Lifted, appearing at the Wimbledon Calling festival, headlined by British Sea Power and The Automatic; and then the acoustic stage at the Aeon Festival. However, again quality issues with the recordings meant the album was postponed and Gray returned to Tokyo to headline at Japan Music Week again in November.

With the departure of drummer, Damien Cavanagh, to England, Nelson recruited close friend, Rob Gommerman, who had been the previous drummer of gold-selling Canadian rock band, Finger Eleven. The band re-recorded the Antidote album at the Japanese indie haven, Stepway Studios, in Yoyogi, Tokyo in spring 2011. A total of 12 new tracks were recorded and Antidote was released in October 2011.

The Gravy Train garnered some limited success in the US after their folk song, "Happy Children", was used in the short film, The Pin, featuring Hollywood actors, John Magaro and Emily Meade. After shooting a video New York-based Positively Fourth Street Productions[12] in the US in July 2011, the band released an accompanying single, "Hang On To The Sweet Song", with Record Union in December 2011.[13] Both creations were the brainchild of Hal Sofsky and Abhay Sofsky, the latter being the co-producer of SXSW Best Documentary 2012, "Beware of Mr. Baker".[14]

After a near-fatal accident, Gray had to stop singing for most of 2012,[19] cancelling all recordings and most of their live shows.[9] The band resurfaced in Tokyo in February 2013 playing a series of comeback shows in Azabu,[20] Akasaka,[21] and Roppongi, including Bauhaus and Hard Rock Cafe.[22] Due to the break, the existing members of the band moved onto new projects, leading Gray to recruit new personnel in Tokyo. such as a Japanese guitarist from the band of 1970s folk-singer Masato Minami,[23] Pon, as well as a new multi-instrumentalist drummer, Shokei Konno, who met playing in Kichijōji's Inokashira Park,. This added a more Japanese influence to the band, with occasional impromptu vocal performances of traditional Japanese folks songs such as "Seikatsu no gara".[24]

Poster for Hard Rock Cafe Tokyo's 25th Anniversary Party featuring Kev Gray & The Gravy Train – June 2013

In June 2013, The Gravy Train headlined at Hard Rock Cafe, Tokyo[25] as part of the Hard Rock Cafe's Anniversary celebrations[22] celebrations.[3][22] The event featured an art exhibition by Nagoya-based painter and designer, Rob Moore, and an additional live set from the Japanese rock outfit, Sawas Phool. This was followed by a performance at the Neptune Theatre [26] for Tokyo Arts Week, which featured Edinburgh Festival comedian Spring Day and a run of Lanford Wilson's Burn This starring New York actors Katherine Puma and Rob Skolits.[27]

The band next featured at an all-day arts and music festival in July called Tokyo Woodstock. The event showcased artists from around Japan demonstrating artwork, poetry, music, spoken word, film and photography.

• The festival featured film by "the foremost Western scholar of the Japanese cinema", the late Donald Richie, who was described by author Tom Wolfe as "the Lafcadio Hearn of our time; a subtle, stylish, and deceptively lucid medium between two cultures that confuse one another: the Japanese and the American." The short film, was one of the "Five Philosophical Fables" [28] from 1967, said to have "had a seminal influence in Japan"[29]
• The festival also featured short films by the pinhole photographer, film maker and author, Edward Levinson;[30] and videographer, Kyle Drubeck, debuting a preview of his documentary about the devastating impact of the Fukushima disaster on the communities of Tohoku in 2011.[31] Drubeck travelled to radioactive areas on his motorbike and filmed footage in a radiation suit to record a first-hand account of the disaster.
• Poetry was represented by Gary Quinn, the Irish poet, author and film-maker; Joe Zhangi, publisher of Printed Matter Press,[32] and Yuri Kugeyama, the American-Japanese poet, author and journalist, who was described by the Mainichi News,[33] as writing "poems that convey an intelligent, sensitive and sexual woman who enjoys life to the full, and who can express herself in a language filled to excess with energy".

Between the film and poetry were various musical performances, with main events of the evening were the performances of the German-Japanese funk band, TEFCO,[34] and the headline act, Kev Gray & The Gravy Train.

On the back of the summer success in Tokyo, Gray headed on a tour of the States, playing in New York, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Miami, and Key West.

In summer of 2017, the band embarked on a World Tour of Asia, Europe and North America. The tour was launched at the 333 Club at the top of Tokyo Tower,[41] followed by dates in Bangkok, Helsinki and London. A 5-week coast-to-coast tour across America followed. Gray was the featured artist at the Singer-Songwriter Sessions at the Greenwich Village rock club, The Bitter End,[42][43] and again at the Pittsburgh Songwriters Circle,[44] before heading to Nashville, appearing at the Bourbon Street Blues Bar in Printer's Alley, and shooting a video at Sun Studios, Memphis. Other performances in New Orleans, San Antonio, Phoenix and Los Angeles completed a tour of 26 performances in 10 weeks.[45][46][41][42][43][44][9]

The band celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a series of shows in Tokyo in 2018, including the Tokyo Dex Sessions event, This and That Cafe, at the Roppongi arts venue, Superdeluxe.[47][48][49]

In summer 2019, the band embarked on a tour of Japan and North America, the Pacifica Tour, performing in Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver and Phoenix.[50][45]

The band has been an active supporter of several charities in its career, raising money at shows and donating performance fees for causes all over the world, such as Empowerment Society International in Liberia;[57] the Chiki Kids Charity in Laos; ARK Animal Rescue Kansai; and disaster relief such the Tohoku earthquake and Haiti earthquake (Lovin' Haiti).

Recently, the band played at the Black Card Cabaret Hollywood Ball in Tokyo, featuring Tokyo celebrities, such as DJ Guy Perryman and Japanese TV star, Dewi Fujin. The event raised over 1.4 million yen for Refugees International Japan.[58][59][60]

Gray was commissioned to write a song for the Shark Conservation group, Projects Abroad, which campaigns against the malpractice of "finning" where 95% of the shark is discarded after the fins are cut off for the lucrative soup market. After a month of research, Gray came up with the theme and lyrics, then the music. The song, "The Last Shark", is sung from the perspective of "the last shark" and hopes "to warn, educate, and change attitudes to the demonization of sharks". The song is to be used for a video to campaign to reduce "finning". The project claims sharks will be virtually extinct within 20 years and marine ecosystems will collapse.[9] Written as melancholy lament at the demise of the last shark in jazz standard style on guitar and piano, Gray sang and played a solo guitar version live on air during a radio interview at Tokyo INTER FM in February 2016, cautioning listeners of the dangers of eating "fukahire" shark fin soup.

As the sole songwriter of the band, Gray describes the songs as "vintage originals", given the influence of all of the older vintage genres on the music: jazz, blues, swing, Latin, folk, country, and rock'n' roll. He ascribes the mainly acoustic nature of the music as being due to living in small musician-unfriendly accommodation in Japan, where electric guitars are not welcome, while maintaining that "electric guitars should not be played with headphones". The eclectic nature of the music was shown in diverse lyrical and thematic choices of Gray during a Desert Island Discs radio show with InterFM DJ, Guy Perryman, in Roppongi in 2015.[40]

The band still aim to make a video for the yoga-themed bossa nova song, "Dirty Downward Dog".[9] The albums The Veil Has Been Lifted, and Prisoner in Paradise, are yet to be finished. Gray states that he is currently looking for a suitable producer to finish the albums.[61]

• Official website

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kev Gray & The Gravy Train.